Carnivore Series: Teeth of a Huntress
by ChuckyDoll
Summary: Follow the story of a merciful huntress, her ordeal with the Original Sharptooth (her brother), the loss of her old family and the formation of a new one (her strange, loving, purple-scaled son in particular).
1. Birth

Asar yawned, quite tired of watching over the egg. The adult male nudged towards his mate, Mnemosyne, and let out a groan. Mnemosyne opened her eyes and huffed, making sure not to wake up their two sons. Asar cocked his head toward the egg and Mnemosyne understood, letting Asar sleep.

"How long have you been watching it?" Mnemosyne asked.

"Long enough, mate," Asar replied. "And I'm quite tired. I need to rest before I teach the boys to hunt."

Mnemosyne replied, licking Asar's snout. Asar let out a low hum, showing off the sharp teeth that had charmed Mnemosyne the first day she met him. She had been stalking a three-horn from behind when the dark-scaled male had surprised her, nearly giving away her position. His mischievous disposition somehow made her forgive him that day and Asar had helped her hunt the three-horn. Mnemosyne and Asar had eaten lunch together and the male burped in such a way that made Mnemosyne laugh hysterically. She thought of Asar's playful personality as she watched him fall asleep and turned her attention to the egg. Mnemosyne and Asar had debated over names for days, much to the annoyance of their two sons, who would occasionally give suggestions. Asar thought for sure that they would have another male, but Mnemosyne was skeptical. It seemed odd to her that they would have three sons in a row, which made her think of the times they had chosen names for them. Mnemosyne allowed Asar to name their first son, who was now Lothair. He, like his father, was black all over, and was growing up to be quite strong. Lothair had an aptitude for ambushes, which, thanks to his father, was increasing with each day. Mnemosyne was allowed to name their second son, who was now called Zander. Unlike Lothair, Zander had some moral inhibitions about hunting and only did so when he had to. Neither Mnenosyne nor Asar understood where this came from and Lothair especially disapproved of it. Lothair would spend several minutes explaining why the strongest deserve to eat the weaker and how it was simply the natural order of things. Zander would understand it on an intellectual level, but never on the level that Lothair and his father did. Mnemosyne always hoped that food wouldn't grow scarce, as Lothair would very likely turn on Zander any day. For this reason, Mnemosyne took Zander with her wherever she went.

Lothair slept beside Asar and Zander leaned on Mnemosyne. She thought of the names that Asar had picked for the soon-to-be sharptooth child. If it was yet another boy, he would name it either Theron or Orion. If it was a girl, he would name it Noir, Samara, or Neith. Mnemosyne liked the last name, but not as much as a name that she had tossed over in her mind so many times. _Maia_, she kept thinking. She hummed the word softly, not even considering what name she would want to give her child if it were another boy. Mnemosyne thought that Beowulf would have been a good male name, but didn't even bother thinking it over, as she was certain that this soon-to-be hatchling was a girl. Mnenosyne sighed, smiling at the egg. She scooted a little closer to it, sniffing it to make sure nothing was particularly wrong with it, when suddenly, there was a crack.

Mnemosyne watched, her heart pounding. A piece of shell from the egg fell to the dirt floor and the mother involuntarily let out a yelp of excitement. She saw a little olive green snout poke from the hole, sniffing the air, and a crack formed near the hole before the juvenile sharptooth's head popped out. Mnemosyne had predicted her to be a light olive green, as Lothair (like his father) was almost black and Zander was only somewhat lighter. The hatchling persistently broke the rest of its shell and when it was done hatching, it took pleasure in breaking the rest of the pieces. Mnemosyne saw that the child's eyes were red as blood and licked its neck. The child toppled over and let out a high-pitched yelp, waking up the sleeping males. Zander perked his head up, his yellow eyes peering at the olive-scaled child, and smiled. Asar and Lothair woke up next, the former complaining that he had only a little sleep before the child hatched. Lothair groaned, thinking that Asar and Mnemosyne would yet again debate on names. Soon, all the males were up, looking at the stumbling little child, who revealed itself to be a female. Mnemosyne's heart swelled.

"Hey, little girl," Zander cooed. "Go ahead and walk, you can do it."

The young female walked toward Zander happily, her eyes still blurry. Zander's head lowered to lick her neck before it rose again, prompting the girl to clumsily jump, landing on her butt. She whined and fell to her side, kicking her legs in the air, and Zander laughed. Lothair rolled his eyes, pretending not to show interest. Asar and Mnemosyne nudged each other affectionately, purring lowly. The newly-hatched female stopped kicking for a moment to see the faces of her new family, letting out an adorable little sound.

"What's her name?" Zander asked.

"If Mother and Father argue over it again, I'm going to eat her and be done with it."

"Lothair!"

Zander nudged the female behind his leg to protect her while Asar and Mnemosyne discussed quietly. Mnemosyne decided she liked the last name that Asar had picked for her, but would only use it in addition to the name she had in mind. Asar smiled at her persistence, chuckling lowly, and looked at the hiding female. Lothair grudgingly peered at her and looked at his parents.

"Well, have you decided her name?" he asked impatiently.

"Neith-Maia," whispered Mnemosyne, which the little girl seemed to respond to, and Asar thought it was the perfect name.

* * *

**Hello! I don't normally write for The Land Before Time and I don't watch the TV show. I'm only familiar with the movies and my favorite character is Chomper. I'm fascinated with the predators, so I decided to make Chomper's Mother and the original Sharptooth siblings. You can guess who the original Sharptooth is here. R&R please.**


	2. Hunt

Neith-Maia looked around, her vision becoming less blurry, and quickly learned to associate names with faces. There were two males with red eyes, the larger one smiling with more compassion than then smaller. The larger one, who she learned was _Father _and _Asar, _was completely black. _Lothair_, whom she learned was her _brother_, had dark olive-green skin. Lothair intimidated her, so she hid behind the leg of a lighter-scaled male, _Zander._ Neith-Maia soon recognized her doting mother, _Mnemosyne_. She let out a high pitched cry at the sound of her own name, still clinging tightly to Zander's leg, despite being a fourth his size. Zander winced slightly at the sensation of Neith-Maia's claws, but let it go, responding with a gentle nudge. After Zander gave a warning glance to Lothair, he encouraged Neith-Maia to let go and walk towards her mother and father. The three took to nudging and licking Neith-Maia affectionately. Lothair watched from a distance, muttering something about food.

"Father?" Lothair asked. "Are we still going hunting?"

Asar was too busy gaining the affections of his new born daughter to pay attention to Lothair. Neith-Maia soon tried to push them away and walked unsteadily on her clawed feet. She lifted up a leg and admired her pointed weapons, wondering what she could use them for, and Zander smiled. Zander paid attention to her pink tongue and tiny teeth, seeing that she had been hatched healthy. Neith-Maia licked Zander's snout playfully.

"She clearly wants to eat you, Zander," Lothair teased. "If she likes the taste of your scales, then your blood to her must be how 'tree-stars' are to pathetic flatteeth."

Neith-Maia observed Lothair curiously, seeing that he wasn't nearly as much of a threat when sitting down. Her darker brother looked away, refusing to acknowledge any affectionate feeling he might have for the little hatchling. Neith-Maia nudged Lothair's side and when he growled, she first took a step back before letting out a petulant crossbreed between a roar and a squeal. She showed her healthy, yet unimpressive teeth, brandishing the claws on her pathetically short limbs. Zander cackled in laughter.

"Looks like you'll have a rival," Zander chuckled.

"Shut up before I eat the both of you," Lothair growled.

"That's it," Mnemosyne groaned. "Asar, take the boys hunting, let me spend some time with my daughter."

Asar chuckled motioning to the boys. Zander stated that he wasn't hungry, that he wanted to play with Neith-Maia, and that Lothair may hunt _him_ "by accident". Lothair scoffed at the ridiculousness of the idea, but agreed nevertheless. Lothair wanted no one to slow him down and Zander often had to insert his moral arguments on any decision he made. "Not the child, let him grow first," he would hear. "Not her, she has an egg," he would hear as well. The only time Lothair would agree with Zander is when Zander thought it better to kill a limping creature, albeit not for the same reasons. Zander would say that it was only okay because the injured creature wouldn't live long anyway, but Lothair enjoyed it mostly due to being able to sense the fear and helplessness in the limping prey. He could still remember when Zander pointed to a full-grown flyer with a broken wing. Oh, how terrified the prey was! Lothair remembered standing just above it, watching the flyer's eyes beg for mercy while it let out cries that Zander apparently thought was a language. Lothair systemically tortured it by poking its stomach with the nails on his feet before biting off bits from the stomach, causing the creature incomprehensible pain. Finally, he snapped its neck as Zander watched him, saying that breaking its vertebrae should have been the first thing to do, not the last. Lothair scoffed at the recollection as he followed his father to a herd of domeheads. Lothair was particularly excited about this hunt, as it was just him and his father, and he started to fantasize about a little sparing match between the two. He knew that Asar, being much older than Mnemosyne, had quite a bit to teach him.

Meanwhile, Neith-Maia took to sniffing every inch of Zander, who relaxed and almost fell asleep again. The young girl, however, was still full of energy, and realized that her stomach was empty. She became impatient with the annoying feeling in her stomach and stomped her feet, making holes in the dirt ground. Attempting to distract herself, she tried to wake up Zander and crawled on him, butting her head into his own. Mnemosyne laughed at the pair and watched as Neith-Maia turned around and kicked her legs in the air. Zander's yellow eyes watched Neith-Maia fall back onto the dirt ground.

"I wonder if she'll grow to be as strong as Lothair," Zander commented. "Others just won't know it."

"Because of how _cute_ she is," Mnemosyne cooed towards Neith-Maia.

"Mmmmah!" Neith-Maia squealed before looking at Zander with a smile. "Zaah-der."

"She's just as smart as the both of you boys," Mnemosyne said softly. "Isn't that right, Neith-Maia?"

"Mmmah-ma! Zaah-der-der."

Soon enough, Asar and Lothair came back with a dead domehead. Lothair was skipping happily, which was an odd sight for Zander, and the younger male guessed that Lothair had done something particularly Lothair-like. Asar was carrying the neck of the domehead in his mouth, blood dripping from his teeth. Neith-Maia could smell the blood from a distance and felt the wanting in her stomach grow. Asar gently placed the meal in front of the group and Mnemosyne ripped out a tender piece of meat with her teeth, putting it in from of Neith-Maia. The hatchling sniffed it and gorged on the meal, relishing the flesh and blood in her mouth. She swallowed a piece and blood tinted her pearly whites, much to the amusement and adoration of her family.

Zander ate with gusto as well, justifying it by saying that _he_ hadn't been responsible for his death. Lothair scolded him for being so sanctimonious and bragged about how he had caught the domehead all by himself, of course under the excellent instruction of the aged patriarch. Zander decided to let a piece of meat hang from his teeth and tempted Neith-Maia to get it. Of course, by pure instinct, she jumped for it.

Neith-Maia tumbled when Zander dodged, phasing her for mere seconds. Neith-Maia got up again, shaking her head, and caught the meat, tearing it from Zander's mouth. She gobbled the piece up and wagged her tail in delight. She started to hop inexplicably before she jumped onto the pile of meat. Neith-Maia ripped a piece of tender flesh, pushing her feet against more bleeding meat, and fell backward with her small snack. Zander licked the blood off of her feet, making her _very_ ticklish, and she let out a childish laugh.

"Zander," she said. "Mama!"

She soon grew tired and snuggled up against Zander, who had finished his meal. Lothair was still indulging and Mnemosyne leaned against Asar, who nudged her cheek gently. Only Lothair was awake, which he was quite glad about, as he could eat the domehead without anyone watching.

* * *

Neith-Maia was growing quickly, but not as quickly as Zander. Now Zander was a little less than three quarters Lothair's size, but didn't dare rival him in strength. Neith-Maia was half Zander's size and proved to be quite intelligent, as she had picked up the carnivore language more quickly than either of her brothers. While Lothair was quite able to use brute force, he still had some ability to be quite sneaky. Zander was more philosophical in nature and preferred to observe the natural behavior of his prey before he ate them. He shared his insights with Neith-Maia, who didn't relate to them as much, but understood Zander's way of being. Similarly, she comprehended why Lothair had no mercy for the herbivores. She preferred not to take sides on ideology, but felt safer with Zander. Lothair would betray her if he was hungry enough.

Now that Lothair was in mid-adolescence, he was considering moving away from the family and finding a mate, which Zander found laughable. Neith-Maia, not even close to pre-adolescence, didn't understand the implications of mating. Zander didn't think it appropriate for Lothair to discuss such matters in front of Neith-Maia. Still, Neith-Maia found the idea of having a mate very interesting and wondered if she would have someone the way Mnemosyne had Asar.

"Zander?" Neith-Maia asked while the rest had gone to sleep. "Why does Lothair want a mate so badly?"

"It's because he's 'changing'. I don't know how to explain it."

"You mean he's becoming nicer?" Neith-Maia asked hopefully. "And he'll be able to have a friend?"

"That's not what I mean. It's just, when you grow up, you'll want certain things only mates do with each other."

"You mean laying eggs together?" she asked, thinking of the many times she asked her mother about watching over hatchlings.

"Umm... sure."

Not knowing why Zander was uncomfortable with the topic, she wished he would tell her more about the nature of this stuff, but she gave up and kissed his cheek. She watched Zander fall asleep and gently licked his eyelids before looking at Lothair, who eyed her disapprovingly. Mnemosyne snuggled against Asar and she witnessed them being quite affectionate, her smile growing involuntarily before she fell asleep.

* * *

"Neith-Maia, look!"

Zander woke her up to see a herd of long necks, varying little in color. He didn't want to wake Lothair, as he knew that the older male would just try to eat them without appreciating them the way Zander did. Neith-Maia quickly figured out that Zander had wanted to observe the herd and test his understanding of the herbivore language. If Lothair were awake, he would scoff and say that it was futile, as the herbivores were obviously dimwits who (if Lothair found them deserving of an identity) had no concept of tactics or self-awareness. Zander had once countered that last point by pointing out that sometimes herbivores observe their reflection in the water before drinking. However, both brothers saw being apex predators as having tremendous power. Neith-Maia thought their debates futile, as it didn't change whether or not she felt hunger in her stomach or had weapons to kill. In any case, it was just Zander and herself, so she didn't have to worry about hearing anything about the subject.

"Can you understand what they're saying?" Neith-Maia wondered.

"I can't hear them from here," Zander stated. "We should get closer."

"Am I going to hunt today?" Neith-Maia let slip mistakenly.

"Yes," Zander stated, to her surprise. "But you must also know the responsibility of being a hunter."

"Like feeding your family," she said.

Zander looked back at the herd of long necks, who didn't seem to be aware of the number of sharpteeth in their vicinity. There were a few older long necks and two adolescents, whom Zander identified as male and female. The two teenage long necks kept each other company, which seemed to amuse a couple of older long necks, and Neith-Maia wondered how much Zander knew about this herd.

"How much can you understand?" she asked again.

"I can understand enough Flattooth Speak to get names of things," Zander explained. "I know they had different names for different types of creatures. They don't see different hunters as different types. They only have one name for us, which roughly translates to 'sharptooth'. Now, shhh, let me try to hear them."

Neith-Maia kept her mouth shut, unable to help but lick her lips at what seemed like a Sharptooth Buffet. Zander gave her a sharp look before she controlled herself. Zander raised an eyebrow (a scaly one, but there was one) and Neith-Maia wondered what it was that he could understand. Finally, Zander lowered his head behind the rocky concealment and explained.

"The light brown adolescent male? He is identified as 'Bron', but I don't know what that means, so I can assume it's a name. He seems to be courting that female. I think her name translates to Nosipho. There are two aged long necks nearby; I think they're her parents."

"Do you know where they're going?"

Zander sighed. "No idea, but it's best to follow herds."

Neith-Maia's stomach started to rumble and she fidgeted her feet impatiently. She saw that the long necks were getting tired and deduced that they hadn't had much to eat. Neith-Maia tried to figure out which one would be the weakest of the group and hoped that the weak link would soon be abandoned by the others when a subgroup of long necks started to make odd sounds toward the others. She gave a confused glance at Zander, who seemed very interested in the long necks' dispute.

"They're arguing over something, but I don't know what. I don't know enough Flatteeth Speak," said Zander. "Maybe the group will split."

The duo waited patiently while Bron, Nosipho, and her parents left the herd along with some other adults. The other half stayed behind, unaware of the two sharpteeth watching them. This group that had stayed behind were fewer in numbers than the portion that left, much to the delight of Neith-Maia. There were about four of them, so if her whole family decided on hunting, they would easily have enough food for a week at most. Neith-Maia decided to tell this to Lothair, remaining undetected by their prey.

"Lothair, wake up," she whispered, nudging her head onto her older brother's.

"Whaaat," he groaned.

"Hunting time," she replied. "It's long neck. Your favorite."

Lothair perked up at Neith-Maia's comments. "Wake up Mother and Father."

"What for?"

Before Lothair could receive an answer, Neith-Maia was running off to Zander's side. Zander was crouched so he would remain hidden, stalking a long neck that had ventured out a little too far from the other three in his herd. _Maybe Lothair had a point in the flatteeth being stupid. _Zander finally pounced on the long neck, his two feet on either side, and the long neck tried to fight him off with futile efforts. Zander dug the claws of his feet into its sides, making the long neck wail in pain. Soon enough, the other long necks got up to save their distressed friend, and Neith-Maia knew that Zander was doubly screwed. The three herbivores attempted to knock Zander off of his prey when Lothair showed up with a sadistic smile.

Lothair raced up behind the long necks and bounced on one of them, biting its neck and spilling blood. The nearly-black sharptooth then jumped onto another one (Neith-Maia wondered how he was able to jump so high) and inflicted the same fatal wound. Lothair hopped off and playfully made deep scratches into the long necks' sides with his feet. He would randomly hit them with his tail just for kicks, weakening the morale (and physical strength) of three of the long necks. Only one remained unharmed and Neith-Maia took the opportunity to try to hunt this one, mimicking Lothair's tactics. She jumped for its neck, grabbing on with her mouth and feet. Her jaws clenched onto the front of the neck tightly, drawing blood that covered Neith-Maia's face. While Lothair quickly annihilated the other three, Zander helped inflict several wounds to the one that Neith-Maia had jumped on. The last long neck let out a moan of despair before it fell to the ground.

Neith-Maia plopped to the floor as well, her face still covered with blood, and Zander licked it clean before he examined the four dead long necks. He paid particular attention to the one he killed and noticed that its eyes were still half-open, so he used his left foot to close them.

"Remember, Neith-Maia," he spoke softly. "Plants gave up their lives so this creature could live. This creature gave up its life so you and I can live, just as many creatures do. Everything dies so another can have yet one more breath of life. One of the top beneficiaries are apex predators, such as us. Apex predators have great power."

"And with great power comes great responsibility, we've all heard this rather pointless lecture," Lothair huffed as he bit into the stomach of one long neck.

Zander ignored Lothair and urged Neith-Maia to do the same. "Eat too few flatteeth and their food source becomes scarce. Eat too many flatteeth and _our_ food source decreases too much. Kill the weak and strengthen the species. Kill all of the children and there's little reproduction. Life is controlled by the raindrop, by the leaf, and by the tooth. If the leaf dies for the flattooth and the flattooth dies for the sharptooth, then the sharptooth dies for a reason as well. That reason is to pay our debt for the flattooth and for the leaf that fed it."

By that point, Lothair was standing above Zander and his foot was raised. Neith-Maia was about to speak when Lothair kicked Zander's head. Zander was hurt, but not particularly surprised. _Such a Lothair thing to do_, Neith-Maia thought.

"All of that crap he's telling you? Strictly for the flyers," Lothair scoffed. "There's always more flatteeth, Neith-Maia. You have to learn to accept your nature. You're made to enjoy the taste of blood."

Neith-Maia wanted them to stop telling her what to believe and focused her attention on filling her stomach. As she gulped down each bite, she couldn't decide whether or not she should be proud of her hunting ability or guilty that she had taken a life. The tender flesh, the blood, it was just so _good!_ Neith-Maia shouldn't have to feel guilty! She was a sharptooth for a reason, whatever that was. She remembered what Zander said about there being responsibility. Beings like her controlled whether all flatteeth starve or if some live happily at the sacrifice of others. She wondered when she would die and if it would satisfy any being she had killed, if they could relish the moment of her death. Neith-Maia thought of Lothair and wondered how many dead flatteeth would gladly spit on his future carcass.

* * *

Neith-Maia noticed that Lothair was rearing sexual maturity and Zander was coming in as a close second. Lothair now rivaled his father, which gave both males intense pride. Mnemosyne now knew that she couldn't defend her younger children against the callous carnivore, but she couldn't think of casting him away either. Asar was much more willing to let the children test their independence and marveled at how Zander and Neith-Maia worked together. The younger brother and sister grew very close, which prompted varied responses from Lothair, who was still considering finding a mate somewhere. Neith-Maia still found the idea ridiculous.

"How do we know you won't eat your mate?" Neith-Maia asked.

"Because," Lothair responded. "I won't choose a weak mate like you, Neith-Maia."

"Leave her alone," Zander defended. "It's okay, Neith-Maia. I'm sure there are plenty who would find you a wonderful mate."

"If you think so," said Lothair. "Then why don't you two go some place and make your tooth crack her shell?"

"What does that mean?" Neith-Maia asked curiously.

"Nothing," Zander dismissed nervously and quickly before replying to Lothair's comment. "You really are sadistic. You're worse than the most depraved cannibal."

"Well, thank you," Lothair dismissed, quickly going to sleep.

* * *

Slowly, Neith-Maia noticed that there were less and less herds of flatteeth to come across. The land was slowly getting dryer, not that there were plenty of plants where they lived, but it _was_ becoming problematic. They now had to compete with (and sometimes hunt) other sharpteeth, which worried everyone except Asar and Lothair. Asar seemed blissfully unaware of Lothair's psychopathic nature and Lothair seemed to get a certain high every time he killed a lesser sharptooth, which worried both Zander and Neith-Maia. Meanwhile, Mnemosyne was getting weaker and weaker, much to the sadness and confusion of her mate. Every night, Neith-Maia would watch Asar nuzzle and lick Mnemosyne gently, fearing that her mother would become too weak to fend for herself. Her family would only be able to protect her for so long before another sharptooth or Lothair got to her. Before she went to sleep, she looked up at the Changing Night Circle and its surrounding twinkly lights, asking them to spare her mother. Zander recognized her fear and explained that death was a part of life and she would simply be paying her debt, as everyone had to do. Neith-Maia would hide behind Zander and whimper that if anyone deserved to pay their debt, it was Lothair, and she was grateful that he didn't bother eavesdropping on their conversations.

"What happens when you die?" she asked Zander one night.

"You're gone," he replied. "That's what happens."

"What does nonexistence feel like?"

"I don't know, sister."

Inexplicably, at least to Neith-Maia, she started to cry. Zander licked her tears away in attempt to comfort her and she smiled at him, thinking that if she ever had a mate, he needed to be exactly like Zander. She guessed that Zander held similar notions about mates and cuddled up beside him, trying not to think of her mother's illness.

Unfortunately, Mnemosyne paid her debt early.

* * *

**Anyone know who Bron is? What about Nosipho? **

**Anyone know the expression "strictly for the birds"? Well, that's where "strictly for the flyers" comes from.**


	3. Run

"Mother?" Neith-Maia cried. "Mother?"

"She's gone, my child," Asar whispered behind her, trying to hold back tears.

Zander stood right beside Neith-Maia, licking her tears despite letting out a flood himself. Only Lothair didn't express grief; instead, he sniffed his mother's carcass and looked around. His nostrils made a shape that indicated his dislike for the scent and Lothair stepped back, examining it from a distance.

"It's best we move away," he said callously. "We don't know what this will attract."

Meanwhile, Zander walked to a nearby tree and snapped off a few branches, carrying them in his mouth. Lothair scoffed.

"Is this another one of those heretical ideas again?" Lothair asked.

Zander let the branches fall over Mnemosyne's body, using some to form a ring around the carcass. Neith-Maia decided to help only because she knew it would give Zander some form of closure. She didn't see the use of putting branches around it. It wouldn't bring her back to life or anything.

"Is it wrong to mourn the dead?" Zander whimpered.

"Leave him alone, Lothair," Asar growled. "We must get moving."

The four left the body of Mnemosyne, which was starting to attract bugs, and headed west. Neith-Maia noticed that the sun was behind them and thought that Zander would see some form of symbolism in such a thing. What exactly he was thinking, she couldn't be sure.

"Zander?" she asked. "Why did she die?"

"She was sick with something," he sighed.

"She was too _weak_," Lothair added, as if Zander was somehow wrong.

Both Lothair and Neith-Maia felt hungry, but Zander and Asar somehow lost their will to hunt. They kept walking for a reason that Neith-Maia wasn't aware of and when she looked back, she saw that Mnemosyne's body was completely out of sight. Already, Lothair seemed to forget about her. Neith-Maia's legs were starting to ache a bit, but if she made any comment, Lothair would say something undoubtedly cruel, so she kept her mouth shut. She looked around, not seeing herds for miles.

"The Bright Circle is soon to rest," Asar commented. "We might as well do the same."

Asar sat down, making a big, careless thud. Lothair decided it was high time to sleep as well, and Zander and Neith-Maia stayed awake beside each other. Zander's eyes were half-open and his breaths were long and deep. Neith-Maia nudged him with her snout, but he didn't react, so she didn't bother. She simply slept, having no dreams.

* * *

"Zander," Neith-Maia asked upon waking. "Where's our father?"

"How would I know?" he snapped, looking around frantically.

Lothair stood and gazed, perfectly calm. He wasn't smiling, but he wasn't exactly frowning either. This was a little unsettling to Neith-Maia, but she was more concerned about her father's well being. She wondered if it was Lothair's fault.

"What did you do with Father!" Neith-Maia finally asked him.

"What?" Lothair replied, almost with a chuckle. "You just assume it's _my_ fault? He was gone before I woke up."

"Well, why would he leave?" she almost cried. "Especially when he has three children?"

"One child," Lothair replied. "I'm almost full-grown and Zander has been reaching sexual maturity for quite some time now. You have _just_ reached pre-adolescence. At my age, I should have left a while back. In any case, with so little food around, we're lucky he hasn't eaten us."

"Then leave, why don't you?" Zander spat at him. "Go ahead and find your mate so you can indulge in 'cracking her shell' like you always talk about!"

"And miss watching you trying to fend for yourselves?" Lothair laughed.

"You're just an additional threat!"

"Well, thank you. Now I know I'm especially feared."

Zander and Neith-Maia dropped the subject and walked on, hoping for a herd to cross their path. Lothair followed closely behind, making the pair somewhat hyper-vigilant. They came across a drying up river and saw fish flopping in the mud, prompting them to lick their lips. Neith-Maia picked one up, tolerating the bits of sand, and threw it in the air. She opened her mouth and stood on the tips of her feet, catching the fish and swallowing it whole. Zander copied the motion and Lothair scrunched his nostrils, disappointed.

"I'm going to need a bit more than this," Lothair complained. "Where's the fun in watching it fear you?"

Nevertheless, he ate quite a few fish anyway, and they walked alongside the river bend, taking breaks to enjoy a snack. This kept Neith-Maia and Zander full for a while, but Lothair was still quite bored. Occasionally, he would sniff the air in hopes that there was some unfortunate herbivore waiting to be discovered. The younger pair would try to walk faster than him, but it would only take him one skip to catch up to them, and they saw that he relished in their inability to escape him.

One night, Neith-Maia and Zander waited for Lothair to fall asleep before they began talking.

"We need to leave," Neith-Maia whispered to him. "Before he tries to kill us both. Even working together, we can't overpower him."

"Let's wait a little longer, so we know he's completely asleep," Zander replied. "Even then, we would have to tread carefully before we can run from him."

"We just have to be sure not to fall asleep," Neith-Maia stated, prompting a nod from her affectionate brother.

They stayed awake, seeing Lothair's eyes twitch, and realized that he was dreaming. Just moments after his eyes calmed down, Zander got up and Neith-Maia followed him. At first, they tip-toed softly, staying away from the river bank so as not to leave footprints. Neith-Maia saw that the tactic wasn't working and fretted.

"Zander," she whispered. "He still might follow us. He can smell very well."

"We still have to try," Zander replied. "Just tiptoe until that bare tree and then we run like a threatened flattooth."

Neith-Maia followed his advice, rather annoyed by the night's cold, and took a brief glance at the starry night. The twinkling lights seemed very pretty and peaceful in contrast to the land she walked now. She trailed closely behind Zander, who was trying to hide his anxiety. Neith-Maia wondered if he still thought about Mnemosyne, but it didn't matter in any case, so she didn't ask. She thought about those branches he had laid on her carcass and considered the idea of that making it easier for him to heal. Finally, they made it to the tree.

"Run."

They both sprinted, making the ground shake around them, and Lothair was out of sight. Neith-Maia had some trouble keeping up with him, but she didn't fall behind entirely, and they had covered quite some ground. They were both panting and it seemed like the plainness of the land would never end. The earth was becoming cracked from the draught. It was a good thing that it wasn't daytime, otherwise it would be unbearably hot.

Finally, they came across a cliff. Neith-Maia took a peek at the deep chasm below and then behind her, ever-paranoid that Lothair had somehow tracked them upon waking. She knew that there were still several hours before daylight would come, but nevertheless, Lothair wouldn't have much of a problem finding the pair. Neith-Maia looked at Zander.

"I guess we're walking alongside it," Zander sighed.

It was quite some time before they spoke.

"Zander," she asked. "Do you really think we'll ever be safe from Lothair?"

"I doubt it," he replied. "But it's better not to increase our chances by staying with him."

"Do you think he woke up by now?"

"I doubt it matters," he said forlornly.

"How long do we have to walk?" she asked. "I'm getting tired."

"Until we find a place where it's hard to sniff us out," Zander replied. "Let's start searching."

Neith-Maia looked around, seeing that the ground below the cliff wasn't as far down. On the opposite side, there were a few caves, though none of them were big enough to fit the both of them. A pathway led down to the ground below the cliff and Neith-Maia thought about going down it, but she could see that Zander wasn't too keen on it.

They walked away from the cliff and after some time, they came across some place more mountainous. Neith-Maia smiled, knowing just how many hiding places there would be, and they proceeded.

There was a pathway between the mountains, which seemed to have additional hills sloppily stacked on top of them. There were beaten trails along the sides of the mountains and additional hills and Neith-Maia wanted to explore all of them so she knew where she could hide. Neith-Maia picked up the scent of a few creatures hiding in the little caves all around them, licking her teeth. Her stomach started to rumble and she knew that much of their potential prey was sleeping right now. She peeked into one small cave and saw a small struthiomimus sleeping soundly. Neith-Maia remembered her mother telling her a story of how one almost snatched her away while she was still an egg and thought it ridiculous that a predator would go after _eggs._ She sniffed the egg-snatcher, inserting her snout into the cave and piercing her teeth into its side. The struthiomimus yelped in pain before Neith-Maia dragged it out of its hiding place and killed it, eating the meat. She left some for Zander, using her clawed foot to push it forward.

"We've been running for a long time," she explained. "You could use some energy."

"Thank you, Neith-Maia," Zander replied, taking a chunk with his teeth.

Zander gulped the piece down and Neith-Maia noticed that a bit of blood was on his snout. She tip-toed up to him and licked the blood off, nudging him gently afterward. He almost chuckled.

"I've only seen that gesture between Mother and Father," he commented.

"And?"

Zander chuckled. "Never mind, sister."

"Where should we hide?"

Zander treaded around, finally finding a round clearing between the hills and surveying the area. Once he finished this task, he plopped down, making a loud thud. Neith-Maia crawled up to his side and rested her head against his developing chest muscles. She heard his heartbeat faintly.

"You're the best brother I've had," she sighed deeply.

"Considering your only other brother is a depraved cannibal, that's not saying much," he replied.

"Don't you know not to ruin compliments?" Neith-Maia responded. "And for all I know, he could have eaten the other children Mother and Father had and spared your life because he was bloated."

"Neith-Maia!" Zander whined petulantly.

"I was only joking," she justified.

"I'm serious, sissy," he replied. "Do you have any idea how much I worried for your life because of Lothair? Bright Circle forbid that he was near you when you reached maturity! I can't imagine what he would do to you then! The only thing that kept him from hurting us was our mother and father, Neith-Maia. He once tried to kill me to get to you when you were a hatchling."

"What stopped him?"

"Father standing right behind him."

"Then why would Father leave us with him right after Mother died?" Neith-Maia cried.

She could see Zander's eyes producing tears and sighed, moving her body so she could stand up. Her head slightly hovered over his and she tried to wipe his tears off of his scaly face in attempt to comfort him. Neith-Maia realized that she hadn't thought of Mnemosyne in quite a while, as her mind was on more urgent matters. She thought of what would happen when Zander had reached Lothair's age. No doubt would he want a mate, but there was no way he would abandon her. There was that inevitable time when they would have to split up and start families of their own. She would very likely name her future son after him and he would follow a similar path with his future daughter. Zander seemed to calm down and Neith-Maia relaxed.

"I remember when you first hatched," Zander spoke, his voice trailing a bit. "You were very jumpy. When Lothair sat down, you even dared to challenge him."

"I _what?"_

"I knew then that Lothair saw you as a threat. You learned to speak so quickly. You were so playful."

"I still am! See?" Neith-Maia replied, head-butting Zander's sides and shaking her tail while making funny noises in his ear. "I'm still playful."

"You should have seen the look on Mother's face. She was in love," he reminisced again. "You were so cute when you were little."

"Does that mean I'm big now?" she teased. "I mean, I _am_ in the beginning of pre-adolescence. Anyway, what was Lothair like before I hatched?"

"Still sick," he replied. "When I first went hunting with him, he tried to convince me that flatteeth had no self-awareness. They were just manipulated by whatever pushed and pulled them."

"Aren't we like that too?"

Zander smiled. "A bit, I guess. Lothair reasoned that flatteeth don't consider the implications of killing their food."

"But they eat plants!"

"They're still living," Zander replied calmly.

"How do _you _know?"

Zander chuckled. "How do I know anything? How do I know you're actually thinking? How do I know that you are, indeed, my sister? How do I know that...?"

"... that you're being annoying right now? That one is easy to tell," Neith-Maia replied. "Usually the saurian you're talking to would either tell you that you're annoyed or huff and pout because you won't stop talking."

"_Well_, then."

Zander slouched a little and Neith-Maia stood before him, her tail swinging from side to side playfully. The male smiled and she rubbed her snout against his, eventually falling on top of him. She stuck out her scrawny arms and yawned.

"Good night, Zander," Neith-Maia half-said. "Love you."

"Love you too, sis," Zander replied, licking the side of her head before they both fell asleep.

* * *

**This is a long overdue author's note.** **I wanted to put in the meaning of each T-Rex name:**

**Mnemosyne (ni-MAWS-ə-nee) - remembrance**

**Asar - Egyptian form of Osiris, which was the god of the underworld.**

**Lothair (I think it's pronounced "loathe-air") - famous army**

**Zander (ZAN-dər) - defender of men**

**Neith-Maia - Goddess of war; Goddess of the spring (respectively)**

* * *

**On another note, do you guys remember who Bron was (from the previous chapter)? What are your predictions?**


	4. Kill

The Bright Circle was rising again, nearly blinding Neith-Maia upon waking. She saw that her brother was already up, taking in a deep breath in order to pick up the scent of prey. She stood up and walked alongside Zander, wondering what he had detected so far.

"Are we going to stay here to live?" she asked. "Or are we going to hunt and then leave?"

"I take it we can stay another night," Zander guessed. "There seems to be enough food here for a day."

Neith-Maia breathed a sigh of relief, remembering a time in her life when she and her family had gone two days without food. Mnemosyne had kept Zander and Neith-Maia close to her while Asar stood between them and Lothair. Both Zander and Neith-Maia thought of abandoning Lothair, who was ending pre-adolescence at the time. Neith-Maia couldn't remember what prevented that from happening, but she wished that Lothair had been left behind a long time ago. She wondered what happened to Asar and grew bitter at the thought of him leaving her and her brother in the claws of a cannibal. The only other option was that Lothair had killed him, but that would require Lothair to use up a lot of energy to fight him and hide the body. She dismissed the thought.

"Come with me," Zander spoke.

Neith-Maia followed closely behind him and she watched as he sniffed out a few eggs from a nest of some smaller predator. Zander inspected them and looked around.

"I wonder why the mother isn't around," he said. "If these eggs hatch, the children won't live very long."

"Which is why I feel completely justified in breaking them and eating the yellow goo inside," Neith-Maia almost cheered, using a claw on her foot to puncture the shell.

Zander used another claw to break the shell piece by piece and Neith-Maia saw a partially formed dome-head, fascinated. The arms were but little stubs and the eye was a small black dot. The ridges for scales were there, but she couldn't identify what color the creature would have been if it had hatched. It was covered in a transparent, yellow substance, which Neith-Maia licked up. She found the taste odd yet tolerable and bit part of the partially formed pachycephalosaurus. Zander did the same, finding the meal a bit mushy for his taste, but nevertheless tolerated it.

Zander looked down and sighed, prompting a comment from Neith-Maia. "Let me guess. You feel guilty for killing unhatched children."

"They didn't even have a debt to pay," Zander replied.

"It's not your fault they have no parents."

Zander pouted and walked away, confusing Neith-Maia. He retreated to the clearing and she followed him. As he sat down with his feet digging a bit into the dirt, she approached him slowly, wondering what she had done wrong.

"Zander?" she asked.

"Why did you have to say that?!" he cried.

"That they had no parents?"

"_No_, for asking that question!" he replied sarcastically.

"Is this about eating the egg?" she asked. "I know you pity the flatteeth, but we _do_ have to look out for our own species and doing that doesn't mean we turn into a bunch of Lothairs."

"Forget it," Zander growled and hid his face, making Neith-Maia both guilty and irritated.

Neith-Maia left him behind and walked around, realizing that she was still hungry. She sniffed the air and sought out a few smaller dome-heads, who were looking at the eggs she broke moments ago. One was carrying some sort of vegetation in its mouth and the other was shedding tears for the broken egg. She couldn't really make herself pity these creatures the way Zander did, even if she tried. The rumbling in her stomach grew louder and she wondered if her previous meal made her even _hungrier._ Her body cast a shadow over the smaller pachycephalosauruses and she watched them run away, chasing after them. She sped up, her breathing becoming faster, and accidentally stepped on one's tail. The small creature whimpered in pain and she bent down to bite it. After ripping a chunk, she swallowed it whole and consumed nearly the entire thing, filling her stomach before she walked on. Out of curiosity, she followed the other one, wondering what Lothair would have felt if he were hunting this little creature down. Chasing after it gave her a surge of adrenaline and she finally killed it when she heard Zander's voice in the distance.

"Neith-Maia!" he yelled. "Don't scare me like that! Something could have happened to you!"

"Something could happen to anyone!" she refuted.

"I don't want that '_anyone'_ to be you, sis," he replied.

"He's right. Someone your size should be _very_ careful. You never know who could be very, very hungry."

Zander and Neith-Maia looked up at a ledge on a mountain, seeing red eyes and a black visage that was all-too-familiar. If those traits didn't confirm his identity, then his sadistic smile did. Neith-Maia almost froze where she stood.

"Run," Zander whispered to Neith-Maia. "We can't both fight him."

Neith-Maia sprinted away and Lothair jumped off the ledge, relaxedly jogging after her with a laugh. Lothair was almost at her tail when she heard the sound of teeth piercing flesh. Neith-Maia took one glance back and saw that Zander had bit Lothair's tail and Lothair was knocking Zander into a canyon wall. She almost screamed for him when she remembered that nothing could be done and ran away, hiding behind a sharp turn in the path to watch Lothair tear Zander apart. Zander kept pathetically trying to kick Lothair's legs until the larger tyrannosaurus rex ripped Zander's throat out, chewing it with gusto.

Neith-Maia sprinted away and when she assumed she was at a safe distance from the now-full cannibal, she broke down in tears.

* * *

**To MummyRules: I just finished this up when I got an email about your most recent review. LOL**

**To Vondon Wiles:**

**1) Why do you review in all caps? I feel as if, in person, you would be screaming your praise through a bullhorn (not that I mind).**

**2) Why don't you make an account so I can PM you?**

**To AmatistaLila and other Native Spanish Speakers:**

**Once I get more chapters up here, I will start translating more chapters for the Spanish version (Hermanos). **

**To EVERYONE:**

**Leave a review stating criticisms, suggestions, and questions in case anything confuses you. If you have an account, I will answer your questions through a PM. If not, then I will answer your questions through an author's note in the next chapter.**

**HAPPY READING!**


	5. Alone

Neith-Maia found herself in a cave that she just barely fit in and sobbed until her body ached. She tried to quiet her voice and hiccups, ultimately failing, and her blood red eyes started to sting. The image of Zander's brutal death replayed in her head and she started to wonder if Lothair had intended to inflict that sort of psychological torture, concluding that her suspicion was correct. Even the sun was enough to hurt her eyes and, against her will, she fell asleep.

* * *

_The pre-adolescent T-Rex felt a warm, concentrated breeze against her head. At first, she thought it was just a gush of wind. She felt the same breeze again and shook her head, blinking her eyes a few times before looking up at a row of shimmering teeth in the mouth of a black-scaled, red-eyed relative. Her heart jumped._

_"You didn't think I'd leave you all alone, did you?"_

_Neith-Maia let out a scream and cowered further into the cave, which collapsed around her while mysteriously leaving her unharmed. She pushed through the broken rock and shook the remains off of her body before bolting away in a desert plain. She felt bits of rock poke the bottom of her clawed feet as she ran toward a tree she thought looked familiar. As she got closer, she saw that someone had bit the branches off and there was a puddle of blood underneath the remaining branches. Her legs froze in place as Lothair jumped in front of her with a wide smile._

_"Do you remember that place?" he asked, moving so he wouldn't block her view of the blood puddle, which now contained Mnemosyne's body covered in broken branches._

_"Mama!" she cried, her mouth no longer able to form anything more complex. "MAMA!"_

_"She won't be alone," Lothair cooed. "Look."_

_Neith-Maia saw Zander collapse on his mother, his eyes closing for the last time. She felt herself shrink in size, her brain remembering less and less, her strength diminishing. She looked up at Lothair, who raised a foot and grinned sadistically. He lowered his foot, pressing Neith-Maia against the earth, and his claws threatened to pierce her skin. She let out a primitive cry._

_Finally, Lothair's gaping jaws were hovering over her head and she could see the dark portal that would lead to his throat. Even his tongue looked menacing._

_"Say goodbye, Neith-Maia," he cooed before lunging for her throat._

Neith-Maia woke up abruptly, hitting her head on the cave ceiling. She scooted out slowly, her heart still beating rapidly, and her body ached as she stretched out her previously cramped body. Cracking her neck, she looked around for any sign of Lothair and continued forward, knowing she wouldn't be safe here. Looking around, she finally realized she was all alone.

She continued on at a slow pace, thinking she would never be safe from her murderous brother, and hoped that he was too full to follow her. Her surroundings appeared desolate and she sometimes walked in several different directions, never returning to the same spot she stood before. The scenery hardly changed and the abundant, temporary haven was now a distant fantasy.

Several weeks she went on like this, eating whatever she could. She ignored Zander's entire code of ethics, thinking that it had gotten him killed, and resorted to eating insects and eggs wherever she could find them. Her taste buds still craved blood, but her diet had kept her temporarily full and nourished. At nights, she would find someplace to hide and stay awake, thinking about Zander before she fell asleep and had recurring nightmares.

During the day, she would remain hyper-vigilant. Every time she heard a noise, she would think that Lothair had stepped on something and exposed himself. She would occasionally come across a small group of small dinosaurs but she wasn't very successful on her hunts. In one out of four attempts, she would catch one unfortunate creature. She learned to see those species as nothing but a food source, knowing that Zander would have been angry and Lothair would have laughed at such a reaction. Neith-Maia would waste no part of the carcass before she continued her journey.

In the distance, she thought she saw a pool of water and observed the few herbivores that gathered around it. There were only two adults, both licking their lips at the sight of water, and they dunked their heads in. Neith-Maia watched the water turn black and thick, suffocating the two dinosaurs as they struggled to escape. She thought that this would be an easy hunt, so she casually walked toward them, knowing that whatever was pulling them in wouldn't let them out.

Neith-Maia leaped up and bit one's neck, jumping strategically so as not to end up in the tar pit as well. The ripped flesh soaked her mouth with blood as the same substance leaked out of the poor specimen's throat. The other dinosaur had foolishly fought the tar pit, finding itself halfway in it and suffocating. Neith-Maia finished off the remaining one, filling herself quickly before she left the carcass behind. Satisfied with her meal, she found a comfortable place to sleep.

* * *

Much time had passed, for Neith-Maia had grown into mid-adolescence. Her muscles had grown taunt, she was much taller than she was before, and her roar had a deeper pitch than before. In addition, her nightmares were occasionally interrupted by more pleasant dreams of affection and of distant memories. Just the previous night, she dreamt of being just a hatchling and playing with her food because Zander thought it would be funny. Her mother had looked lovingly upon her, predicting that she would be very strong and intelligent as an adult. Zander had watched over her as a father would for a daughter and Lothair hadn't yet reached adolescence. Back then, he didn't seem as much of a threat. Neith-Maia had been blissfully unaware of how easily her family could fall apart.

She had decided to start observing herbivore nature again, remembering everything Zander taught her. She was starting to understand names of individuals, which sometimes made her cry at the memory of Zander, and started practicing. Over a period of several months, she started to understand names of objects and different phrases, such as "tree star", "spike tail" and "scaredy egg". She found that this didn't stop her from eating her prey, which she was glad about.

Neith-Maia had traveled some distance when she saw a mixed herd in a heated argument. A pterodactyl was perched on the back of one long-neck, listening intently. The flyer rose in the air, squawking something that Neith-Maia could only understand a few words of. She picked up "herd", "danger" and "food". The flyer prompted a few nods from the other herbivores before flying in a direction where Neith-Maia saw a group of deinonychuses before. She guessed that the male flyer wasn't aware of the predators nearby and watched as the mixed group of herbivores split. One group followed a pair of long-necks and the other followed the flyer. Neith-Maia, full and curious, decided to follow the group led by the flyer.

The group she followed walked to a bottom of a canyon and Neith-Maia saw the deinonychuses pick up their scent. The group of predators followed them with a certain glee and the T-Rex noticed their ribs protruding from their abdomens. The group of herbivores seemed to sense danger and she saw a worried expression on the flyer's face. The deinonychuses ambushed them and the herbivores cowered in fear, their group condensing. Finally, one triceratops stepped forward bravely, prompting the others to fight.

The flyer panicked while the larger herbivores whipped their tails at the predators. Neith-Maia watched as more deinonychuses ambushed them, overwhelming the group and killing off each herbivore within minutes. Meanwhile, the pterodactyl flew above the canyon, occasionally looking back to see the carnage, and Neith-Maia left.

* * *

**Did any of the readers watch the seventh movie (Stone of Cold Fire)? If so, you'll understand this chapter. **


	6. Follow

Neith-Maia didn't remember how long it had been since she watched the calculated ambush. She just knew that the strength of her memories were diminishing. She could remember what her mother's personality was like, but it was becoming harder for her to remember her face and her voice. Neith-Maia tried to remember Mnemosyne, but all her mind could bring forth was a dead body covered in branches. She had remembered basic facts about her appearance: very light olive skin and yellow eyes. The more subtle facial features were lost to Neith-Maia.

Even more difficult was the task of forgetting Zander's death. The nightmares would cease for a while before returning in full force, making her afraid to go to sleep. The strange expression of delight on Lothair's face was even more frightening. She was sure that he was keen on finding her, angry at her for escaping. The most troubling part was that Zander's death was her fault.

Neith-Maia couldn't be sure if her paranoia about Lothair had ever ended. From time to time, she would hear rumors about a most-feared Sharptooth from both herbivores and other predators. The first time the rumor was mentioned, she heard of a T-Rex with nearly supernatural strength. The second time she heard it, this T-Rex was described as having eyes the color of blood and the skin black as a starless night. These descriptions chilled her blood and she hoped she was far away from Lothair.

She had been walking above a canyon when she saw who she thought was Lothair walking on the floor of the chasm. Her heart had raced in fear until she saw that this particular T-Rex looked far more aged than Lothair did. However, he still had the red eyes and nearly black scaly skin. The sharptooth was walking slowly, his ribs a bit more apparent than they used to be, and Neith-Maia saw him turn his head slightly.

_Father!_

Neith-Maia found a narrow path into the deep canyon and followed him, seeing that there was quite some distance between them. As she thought of what she was going to say to him, she realized that she had still been angry at him for leaving her and Zander in the claws of Lothair. However, with age came a little bit of hindsight, but she wasn't sure that this was enough to distill her emotions.

"Father!" she called.

Asar looked behind him and froze in place, shocked by what he saw. Neith-Maia caught up to him and stood directly in front of him, looking into his aged eyes. She caught her breath, seeing that Asar had lost quite a bit of his former strength. The mid-late adolescent couldn't tell what he was feeling. This unsettled her.

"Father," she murmured.

Asar adjusted himself. "Neith-Maia..."

Her mind reeled back to her last memory of him, falling asleep with her and her brothers the night before he left. He had been grieving over Mnemosyne in a similar manner to that of Zander, whom she dearly missed now. She remembered her caring brother leaving sticks over Mnemosyne's body, her father not bothering to hunt after her death, and her own confusion on her mother's circumstances. Now that Neith-Maia was partially accustomed to living on her own, contact with another one of her own kind felt foreign, despite her early, significant experiences.

"Father, I – I," Neith-Maia stammered only for Asar to turn around and walk away, much to her irritation.

Neith-Maia quickly followed him. "I haven't seen you for years after you left us and now you won't talk to me?"

"You're an adult," he replied with a tired voice. "You can take care of yourself now. You don't need me."

"That's not the point!" she replied angrily, not letting him out of her sight. "The point is right when Mother died, you decided to leave Zander and I vulnerable to Lothair."

They walked further, noticing that the chasm was getting less deep and the environment was comfortably warm. Asar seemed to breathe laboriously while Neith-Maia was hardly making an effort. When he breathed from his nostrils, Neith-Maia would hear a deep sniffling sound. She wondered if he was sick, but invariably decided not to let herself feel guilty.

They had stopped right beside a large nest containing a few eggs. Neith-Maia had recognized them as those of another T-Rex and leaned down to sniff them. However, with Asar standing so close to her, she couldn't detect a distinct scent.

"Don't break those eggs," he said sternly.

"Why? Are they yours?" she cruelly teased.

Neith-Maia hadn't even realized that there was a fork in the canyon until she saw a tan snout poke from the chasm wall. The snout turned into a floating head, which became the front half of a T-Rex body, which Neith-Maia later recognized as a female not much older than herself. She seemed alarmed of Neith-Maia, but oddly enough, she was disturbingly familiar with Asar.

"Tanith," Asar started.

Neith-Maia noticed that behind Tanith, there was a small, gray male with one red eye and one yellow eye. She had never seen this trait before. The gray male seemed to notice how unsettling it was to Neith-Maia and his nostrils flared up.

"Duncan, stay back," Tanith warned the small male.

Little gray Duncan took a step back, ever wary of Neith-Maia. The green female looked at Tanith and at Asar, who was glancing at the eggs every other second. Neith-Maia somewhat figured out their relationship and was angry.

"Who is this 'Tanith' and why does she know you?" she asked angrily.

"Who are you?" Tanith shouted at Neith-Maia.

"I'm his _daughter!"_

"Neith-Maia, please," her father begged. "Please don't do this."

"You have a daughter?" Tanith asked Asar. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Neith-Maia let out a cruel laugh. "Wow! Did you _really_ think you were his first mate? You didn't think that he had some sort of history? Let me tell you right now, you chose a _horrible_ mate."

Tanith stepped back, looking at Asar quizzically. Young Duncan seemed too confused to understand what was going on, but Tanith displayed a certain anger for what was being revealed at the moment. Neith-Maia saw that Asar appeared threatened.

"Neith-Maia, stop."

"Why should I, Father?" she demanded. "_If_ you are worthy of such a title! You left us, Zander and I! Did you not know that you left us in the claws of a psychopathic cannibal?! Why would you do that? Especially right after Mother died! Mother died and you replaced her! You know what happened when you left us? Zander died trying to protect me because _you never did!"_

"Asar?" Tanith asked, almost crying. "Is this true?"

Neith-Maia turned to her with an undoubtedly cruel expression. "Like he would tell the truth to you now! Let me tell you something. Of us three children, he favored that cannibal all because he, Lothair, the _most-feared Sharptooth_, was a spitting image of himself. All because he was strong and smart and could hunt. Right after my dear mother, Mnemosyne, died of some illness, he left us the next day. I had barely hit pre-adolescence. Now what makes you think that a Sharptooth like himself wouldn't abandon you? Seriously! What makes you think that, with you, he wouldn't produce another psychopathic child that would kill his siblings? How do you know that _he hasn't done so already_?"

Duncan, seemingly understanding that last part, grew angry at Neith-Maia for such accusations. Neith-Maia peeked over at the eggs, her blood boiling and her mouth yearning for blood or amniotic fluid. She looked at Asar and back at the eggs before huffing and making a decision.

"Now, why would the old, aging Asar stupidly decide to take a chance, knowing that he might make a mistake?" she sneered. "Are you trying to replace my mother's children too?!"

Neith-Maia knocked down Asar with one strong shove before she raised her foot over the large eggs. Duncan leaped forward in attempt to stop the older female, but Neith-Maia had stomped on the brittle shells, exposing yolk and partially formed fetuses. Tanith's yellow eyes started to water and she let out a sorrowful growl.

"What?" Neith-Maia taunted. "You never had someone hurt you? How is _that_ even possible?"

Duncan was still charging at Neith-Maia, who used her other foot to kick Duncan past his mother. He fell on his back and Neith-Maia noticed he was bleeding, much to her satisfaction, before she decided that she was quite done here. Duncan stood up again, revealing a bloody scar that extended from his eye to a clawed finger on his left appendage. Neith-Maia took note of this.

"You – you, you! You just killed my siblings!"

Neith-Maia noticed that the blood dripping on his hand was staining one of his claws, making it permanently red. "Look on the bright side, Duncan. That claw will give you a new nickname among flatteeth."

She surveyed the scene one more time, noticing Asar was struggling to get up and Tanith had gone into shock. Neith-Maia took one final look at the broken egg shells before she turned around, not giving her father a second thought once more.

* * *

**Any predictions, criticisms or general comments? Leave them in a review along with some questions you may have.**


	7. Mate

It had been months since Neith-Maia saw Asar with his mate, Tanith, and his son. She remembered the look on Duncan's face when she smashed the eggs that would have been his brothers and sisters. When that thought came up, she wondered if Asar had thought of names for the potential children. Neith-Maia had even gone so far as to assume that he would name one of them after Mnemosyne. Guilt flooded her entire being when she thought of Asar's dead and unborn children, at one point bringing her to tears. She couldn't look at the claws of her feet without seeing Lothair's claws as well nor could she push away the memory of her own deed whenever she saw an egg. Zander would have been ashamed of her. She realized she felt guilty for outliving him.

She remembered conversations from childhood memories between Zander and Lothair about "cracking the shell" by "using one's tooth". Lothair had been referring to mating, which Zander tried to censor as much as possible, but Neith-Maia had to learn about it eventually. Now that she had nearly finished adolescence, she started to understand what sort of physical urge Lothair had talked about years back and fantasized more and more about finding a potential mate. Other T-Rexes were hard to come across, which made her fantasies more frequent, and for a long time, she thought she would never find someone.

Neith-Maia decided to stalk an abandoned Triceratops and waited behind a boulder, keeping her breaths low and steady. Her heart started to beat faster, making her giddy about anticipating a good hunt, and she leaped forward to chase the three-horn.

The panicked herbivore tried to flee, but its limp prevented it from going far. It tried to strike Neith-Maia with its tail when another T-Rex, seemingly out of nowhere, leaped forward so he was in front of the prey animal. The three-horn would have charged had Neith-Maia not broken its leg even more and the mysterious male sharptooth bit its neck, finally killing it. Neith-Maia stepped back to examine the stranger.

She saw that his eyes were a mix between red and orange and his skin was somewhere between black and red. His facial features made him seem gentle, but his strength gave the impression of a natural killer, which confused Neith-Maia. The male smiled at her and motioned his head toward the carcass, making her lick her teeth, and she decided to take a bite.

"Might I know your name?" the male asked, his voice unusually nice sounding.

The young adult felt her blood rush to her cheeks when he spoke and she wondered if it was because of those mate fantasies she'd been having lately. "I'm Neith-Maia."

The male swallowed his bite of red meat. "I'm Lancelot."

Neith-Maia dug her snout into the flesh so she wouldn't risk saying anything stupid. Lancelot observed her behavior, a low chuckle emitting from behind his razor sharp teeth, and he ripped another piece of meat from the carcass. Neith-Maia swallowed her bite and gazed at Lancelot's attractive maroon skin. She couldn't be sure if Lancelot could tell what she was feeling.

"Are you okay, Neith-Maia?"

"Oh, of course. I – I'm fine."

"You must be just lightheaded from hunger," he chuckled. "I saw you dig into your meal as if it was the last day that you'll live."

Neith-Maia sat down, taking a break from her evening meal, and stared at the sky. The stars, instead of giving her comfort like they would on most nights, brought her pain. She couldn't understand why, which only hurt her more, and she started to cry.

Lancelot stepped aside from the carcass and leaned towards her. "Are you okay?"

"It's nothing," she half-lied. "I don't know why I'm crying."

Lancelot sat by her side and nudged her in order to comfort her, hearing her murmur that she felt somewhat soothed. They sat together, watching the sun set, and they both eventually fell asleep, leaning on each other.

* * *

Neith-Maia and Lancelot ended up spending more and more time with each other, neither of them knowing that the other had feelings for them. Whenever Lancelot would glance Neith-Maia looking at him, she would look away quickly, and vice versa. They would hunt together and Lancelot would continually be oddly impressed by her skill, which she had attributed to her strong parents. She hadn't yet told him about her family, only that she had lived on her own since her early adolescence. He had shown her sympathy whenever she revealed signs of emotional pain, but she would try to keep it to herself, as she didn't want to add to Lancelot's problems. She started to notice that he had taken a liking to her and felt a little glad when she came to the realization that he had returned her feelings.

One night, they were resting after a substantial meal and she was looking at the claws on her feet, once again picturing the eggs she had broken months ago. She started to cry, thinking of how different her life would have been had Zander survived. Lancelot noticed this.

"Neith-Maia?" Lancelot asked. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head.

"What's wrong?"

"I killed my father's children."

Lancelot paused, utterly shocked by her admission. He almost stood up, but decided it was better to sit by her side and learn the full story. She started to sniffle.

"W-what do you mean?" Lancelot asked.

"I saw my father w-with a n-new mate and I got so angry I c-crushed his eggs," she confessed.

Neith-Maia half-expected him to leave, but instead, he remained near her, licking her tears gently. This made her want to cry more. The more she cried, the more attentive Lancelot was. It seemed like a never-ending cycle.

"M-my father left us w-when my m-mother died," she told him. "I w-was st-t-till a child. My old-d-dest brother w-was a psychopath and m-my oth-ther brother c-c-ouldn't p-pro-t-tect me."

"What do you mean?"

"Z-zander and I tr-tried to leave Loth-thair b-becausssse we knew that he would c-come affffter us. Lothair found us anyway and he tttt-tried to k-kill me but he g-got Lothair ins-stead," Neith-Maia wept. "A-and F-father l-l-left us w-with him and re-p-placed Mother!"

Lancelot comforted her for the rest of the night, eventually letting her cry herself to sleep while he watched over her.

* * *

Neith-Maia and Lancelot were walking by an evanescent river, watching a few fish flop. She took one and tossed it to Lancelot, who readily caught it with his mouth. This made her laugh and they made a game out of it, both feeling like they were recent hatchlings. She thoroughly enjoyed the sound of his low, handsome laugh. They had stopped for a brief moment, both catching their breath.

"Let's sit down," Neith-Maia panted.

Lancelot agreed and cuddled up beside her, making her feel warm, and her claws skimmed the surface of the river. She let out a low purr and he nudged her neck gently, making her squeal involuntarily. He chuckled and looked at her with a smile before he licked the side of her neck and cheek. Neith-Maia purred even more.

"Lancelot!"

"What?"

"I, uh, I didn't know you..." she lied.

"Oh, uh, did you?"

"Yes," Neith-Maia admitted with a huge grin.

Their tails accidentally touched each other, making her shiver a bit. She licked the underside of his chin, causing him to close his eyes for a moment, enjoying the closeness. She leaned on his muscly chest.

"For how long?"

"What do you mean?" Lancelot asked.

"How long did you _like_ me?"

"Since I saw you hunt that day."

She closed her eyes, smiling involuntarily. "Same here, Lancelot."

"Do you want to be my mate?"

"Whaaat?"

Lancelot raised his voice a bit. "Do you want to be my mate?"

Neith-Maia separated from him, standing by his side. He turned his head to face her, thinking that she looked particularly attractive in the dimmed light. Her blood red eyes glowed.

"Yes, Lancelot. I do."

He stood up and licked the sides of her neck enthusiastically, eventually prompting them to become more intimate. Neith-Maia started to wonder what it would feel like for Lancelot to 'crack her shell' and, as if he had read her mind, he granted her wish.


	8. Shell

Neith-Maia and Lancelot had slept together that night, both exhausted by their 'shell-cracking' session. That session ended with them laying together and involuntarily falling asleep side by side. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Neith-Maia felt whole.

She rose from the ground, surprised to see Lancelot already awake. His head was just above her neck and right when she turned her head to face him, he licked the underside of her chin. She purred softly.

"It's about time my mate is awake," Lancelot whispered.

Neith-Maia pushed herself up, allowing him to show her affection. She still couldn't stop thinking of the night before. It had seemed so sudden. She wanted the feeling of wholeness to last.

"How're you feeling?" he asked.

She used her forehead to rub against his neck. "Lovely."

Lancelot rubbed his tail against hers and purred. He stepped back and breathed softly over different areas of her spine.

"Ohh no, Lancelot," Neith-Maia chuckled. "Not _again."_

"Why not, Neith-Maia?" he asked, continually nudging her neck. "You say no but everything else sends a different message."

"I'm still high from last night," she replied. "Besides, I'm too distracted by my hunger."

"Oh, of course," Lancelot laughed, walking away to find prey.

Neith-Maia followed Lancelot across the great plain in hopes of finding a weak herd. There was a pack of pachycephalosauruses, each with protruding ribs, and Lancelot licked his lips. Neith-Maia, realizing that there was no way of concealing themselves, decided to charge after them. She broke up the pack in half and stomped on the tail of the weakest one, snapping its neck with her teeth.

Lancelot, on the other hand, scared his prey into submission. His roar was enough to make the dome-head tremble in his shadow and he snapped its head clean off. Neith-Maia brought her meal closer to Lancelot and they rested, taking bites from their hard-earned meal. Neith-Maia looked at Lancelot's bloodstained teeth and smiled.

"What?" Lancelot asked.

"Your teeth," Neith-Maia replied.

"Oh, I see now," he responded. "You're jealous that mine are sharper."

Lancelot revealed his teeth with a grin, making Neith-Maia cackle until her sides hurt. Lancelot ended up laughing with her and Neith-Maia had to bite an exposed bone to stop. The older maroon male found this even funnier and fell backward.

Neith-Maia dropped the bone. "Are you okay?"

Lancelot got up. "Yes, I'm fine. On another note, you got some blood on your chin."

Neith-Maia foolishly tried to look at her own chin and lick parts of her bottom jaw, prompting Lancelot to get up. "Let me get it for you."

He leaned over and licked her chin, prompting a soft chuckle from the infatuated female. They rubbed snouts before Lancelot sat back down, finishing up the dome-head.

"Tell me about your family," Neith-Maia said casually.

"Haven't I told you already?" he asked. "Oh, wait, that must have been my other two mates."

"Lancelot!"

"I'm kidding! Relax, Neith-Maia!" Lancelot laughed. "Besides, I highly doubt you haven't mated with someone before me."

"I actually haven't," Neith-Maia replied. "You were the first T-Rex I had seen in a long time, aside from my father and his new family. Now, tell me about yours."

Lancelot took one last bite of his meal. "My mother was named Claramae. My father was Imenand. I had one older sister, but she died when I was very young."

"What was her name?" Neith-Maia asked.

"Her name was Aelanyx," he answered. "There was a great earthquake. She fell in a deep chasm that formed. We found her body soon after."

"What did your family look like?"

"My mother's skin was blood-red, like your eyes. She had eyes like mine, though. My dad was entirely black. His eyes were a dark green," he explained. "I can't remember my sister so well, other than that she was a little darker than I am now."

"Do you not have any memory of her?"

"No," he sighed. "What were your parents' names?"

"Asar and Mnemosyne," she answered. "My mother died of some illness before my father left me and my brothers. Anyway, did you have any mate before me?"

"Yes," he admitted. "Her name was Orabel. We had two girls: Ashling and Cælia."

"What happened to your mate and children?" Neith-Maia asked, suspicious of him.

He looked down. "They died."

Neith-Maia got up and huffed. "And you just replaced her with me!"

"Neith-Maia!"

Angry at Lancelot, she ran in another direction, not sure where she was even running to. She just knew that she was on the verge of tears, thinking that Lancelot would be exactly like her own father and that when she died, she would no longer matter. He would find someone else who would see him as equally disposable. What was love worth when it was replaceable?

"Neith-Maia!"

"Leave me alone!"

She ran into a path in a small mountain range, inadvertently scaring off anyone she came across, and tried to hide from Lancelot. Neith-Maia found a split in the path and headed toward a clearing. When she finally reached it, she sat down and tried to shrink within herself. Lancelot kept calling her name, but she refused to answer. Why he kept doing it even if the attempt was futile, she had no idea.

Neith-Maia heard him get closer to where she was and cowered back into the wall of a mountain, still sobbing. She saw his shadow and kept her face buried in her legs while Lancelot finally found her. Neith-Maia didn't dare look up. Whatever feeling of wholeness she felt that morning was completely gone.

"Neith-Maia, please," he begged.

"Am I just as replaceable as she is?!" she demanded to know. "After I let you mate with me?"

"You're being ridiculous!"

She let out a guttural roar and he backed away, deeply hurt by her rejection. Lancelot hit behind a mountain wall, remaining there until morning and waiting for her to forgive him.

* * *

Neith-Maia woke up that morning, feeling not as angry at Lancelot as she was the night before, and went out to find him. Sure enough, he was sleeping right outside of the clearing she had taken refuge in. She sighed, her breath accidentally waking him up. Lancelot shook his head.

"Are you still mad at me?"

"Not as much," she admitted. "Just confused."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't understand how one can just replace someone in their lives," she stated.

"I'm not replacing anyone," he clarified. "You're completely different from Orabel. I just happened to find love again."

She sighed, a slight snort coming from her nostrils. "I compared you with my father. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry, too," Lancelot replied. "For whatever caused you pain."

He licked the side of her face in attempt to comfort her, which worked, though she would hate to admit it. They nestled together in that clearing, deciding later that night to 'crack her shell' _again_, and they fell asleep.

* * *

Some time later, Neith-Maia was experiencing some slight pain between her legs. It had happened in the middle of her sleep, which alerted Lancelot. They both stood up, but Neith-Maia decided it was better to squat. She had the feeling that she was going to lay an egg.

"Ah!" Neith-Maia groaned. "It kind of hurts."

"You'll be okay, Neith-Maia," Lancelot soothed. "It won't last long. Look! You're almost done, just keep going."

"AH!" she roared. "Ow!"

When the egg softly dropped onto the dirt below, Neith-Maia felt the pain relieve itself and she sat beside the egg. Lancelot admired it alongside her. They purred together.

"I just have a feeling this one's going to be a girl," Neith-Maia purred.

"What would you name her?" Lancelot asked.

"Chryseis," she replied. "What would you name him if he were a boy?"

Lancelot smiled and nudged her neck gently. "Zander."


	9. Child

Neith-Maia and Lancelot took turns watching over the egg for several days. She was absolutely sure that her child would be female and kept thinking of her name over and over. As Lancelot slept beside her, she waited eagerly for it to hatch. After yawning and almost falling asleep, she heard a crack.

"Lancelot," Neith-Maia whispered. "Wake up."

"Hmm, no," Lancelot replied, keeping his eyes closed.

"There's no 'no', Lancelot, now wake up!"

Neith-Maia got up, poking Lancelot with her foot, and watched over the breaking egg. She remembered when Mnemosyne told her how she had met Asar and realized that she had met Lancelot in such a similar way. Lancelot finally got up and licked Neith-Maia's side, making her purr as she watched bits of shell come off. Neith-Maia saw a little head pop up, covered in amniotic fluid. The muddy-colored T-Rex pushed her feet out, walking with the shell partially intact around her body, and tripped. Her tail popped out and she rolled around, breaking the shell completely and getting her scales filthy.

"Come here girl," Neith-Maia cooed, licking her clean. "My Chryseis. Chrissy."

"She's wonderful," Lancelot purred. "She'll take after you."

Little Chryseis started jumping playfully, crushing bits of shell underneath her. She wagged her tail playfully and Neith-Maia bent down to nudge her affectionately. Chryseis licked her mother's snout. Neith-Maia almost cried.

"I – I have a daughter," she whispered. "I still can't believe it. I have a daughter. Oh, Lancelot."

"I know, love."

Chryseis embraced her mother and father before attempting to chase her own tail and tripping over her own feet. Chryseis then tried to jump _on_ Neith-Maia's snout and the new mother kept dodging the little T-Rex, annoying Chryseis to no end. Lancelot couldn't stop laughing.

"Chrissy," Neith-Maia cooed. "Say 'Mama'. Come on, say it."

"Mmmmmmmmah!"

"Lancelot," Neith-Maia cried. "She's lovely."

* * *

Chryseis was growing up fast. She had observed Lancelot kill three-horns and longnecks on a number of occasions and practiced her pouncing positions, jumping on sticks and using them as pretend-prey. Chryseis perfected her jump before she learned to speak her first few words, proving that she had surpassed Neith-Maia in terms of intelligence. Neith-Maia predicted that each generation would surpass the one before it because of this.

The moments Neith-Maia spent observing Chryseis reminded her of the times she had spend with her late mother. Occasionally, Chryseis would catch Neith-Maia tearing up a bit when she watched over her. The first time had been when Chryseis was attempting to break a bone with her teeth, eventually deciding to smash it against a canyon wall in order to achieve her goal. She had been sucking the bone marrow out when she caught Neith-Maia crying.

"Momma?" she asked. "Why are you crying?"

"Because I'm sad."

Chryseis trotted up to Neith-Maia's side. "Why are you sad?"

Neith-Maia sighed. "Because watching you makes me miss my mother."

"What happened to your mother?"

"She died when I was pretty young. She was sick and that's why she died," Neith-Maia explained. "She loved me like I love you."

"I love you, Momma," Chryseis whispered, nudging her head against Neith-Maia's legs.

Lancelot walked to the clearing, bringing home a fresh killed dome-head, and set it in front of Chryseis. He saw that Neith-Maia had been weeping and went to comfort her while Chryseis dug in, satiating her hunger.

It wasn't long before Chryseis was ready to hunt on her own. She begged Neith-Maia to let her hunt alongside her father and she finally said yes on the condition that she watched her as well. They took a trip to a place that attracted a few herds here and there and Lancelot decided to teach Chryseis a few tricks.

Neith-Maia watched as Lancelot taught her how to ambush. Chryseis, having perfected her jump, took down a longneck twice her size rather quickly and Neith-Maia congratulated her. The mother cracked its neck to make sure it was dead and Lancelot licked Chryseis happily, ecstatic over his daughter's accomplishments.

"Did you see me, Momma?" she asked, jumping all over their meal. "Did you see me?"

"Of course I did, little Chrissy."

"It is _Chryseis _now. I am so not little!"

"You have JUST started preadolescence, _Chryseis_."

"I'm still not little!"

"Okay, Chryseis, whatever you say," Neith-Maia chuckled.

Lancelot laughed. "The things you two say to each other."

Chryseis stuck her tongue out at him and Neith-Maia licked her forehead, prompting a giggle. Lancelot smiled at the both of them and Neith-Maia grinned back, both of them recognizing that fulfillment they had finally both found through their daughter. Chryseis looked at both of them, puzzled, and went back to eating.

Of course, for Neith-Maia, fulfillment was _always_ temporary.


	10. Despair

Chryseis was starting to become curious about the past of her parents and kept asking about their favorite childhood pastimes. Neith-Maia was leading them in the direction of a mixed herd she had encountered some time ago when Chryseis was skipping beside her father, asking him many questions.

"Dad?" she asked. "What games did you play?"

Lancelot chuckled. "I liked to catch flyers."

"Did you have a brother or sister to play with you?" she asked.

"I had a sister."

Chryseis trotted a bit to catch up with him. "What was her name?"

"Aelanyx," he answered. "I don't remember her very well."

"Why?"

Lancelot sighed. "She went away."

"Where, Dad?"

Neith-Maia sensed that Lancelot wasn't ready to tell Chryseis and thought of ways to change the subject. She heard the mixed heard speaking to one another and tried to discern what they were saying simply to see if she could still understand Flattooth Speak. The strange thought reminded her of Zander and what he had taught her about hunting and nature.

_Eat too few flatteeth and their food source becomes scarce. Eat too many flatteeth and __our__ food source decreases too much. Kill the weak and strengthen the species. Kill all of the children and there's little reproduction. Life is controlled by the raindrop, by the leaf, and by the tooth. If the leaf dies for the flattooth and the flattooth dies for the sharptooth, then the sharptooth dies for a reason as well. That reason is to pay our debt for the flattooth and for the leaf that fed it._

Neith-Maia, unable to stop thinking about the day Lothair killed Zander, started to cry.

"Mom?" Chryseis asked. "Why are you crying?"

Neith-Maia realized that she was about Chryseis's age when Zander died. This made her sob uncontrollably and Lancelot realized she was crying because of something from her past. He walked over and tried to lick her tears away while Chryseis kept nudging her mother's leg with her head. Her chest quivered.

"Mom?" Chryseis asked again.

Lancelot and Chryseis looked at the mixed herd up ahead, seeing them disappear in the distance. Neith-Maia could no longer feel her hunger and Lancelot seemed to understand what she was feeling, but Chryseis was getting annoyed. The young, muddy-colored girl huffed at the sight of her disappearing prey, but realized that there was something she couldn't understand about her mother.

"Mom? Chryseis asked, yet again. "What happened?"

Neith-Maia shook her head. "Nothing."

Chryseis stood in front of her and stomped her right foot. "You _always_ say it's nothing! There is obviously something! Why don't you tell me, Momma?"

"Chryseis," Lancelot hushed. "Leave your mother alone."

Chryseis hung her head low as she walked away with her father, leaving Neith-Maia to cry alone.

* * *

"Mother!"

Neith-Maia heard her daughter cry as she was walking through the canyon they resided in. She followed the cry around a corner and saw her daughter running from something that she could only see the shadow of. Neith-Maia saw that she had a large flesh wound and was suffering from major blood loss. Her heart started to beat rapidly as she wondered where Lancelot was. Just then, she saw a gray head appear from behind the corner, sporting a familiar scar from his eye to his claw.

"Where's your father?" Neith-Maia asked, panicked.

"H-he killed him," Chryseis struggled as more blood leaked out of her back.

Neith-Maia looked back at the growling creature, who smiled sinfully. She remembered the day she smashed those eggs years ago out of spite for her father, who had mated with that girl, Tanith. The male with the scar had only been a child then and she had mocked his pain cruelly, nearly turning into her own sadistic brother. She couldn't remember what had happened to her father at the time, other than that life had seemed to exhaust him. She wondered if he was still alive.

"Oh," Duncan growled. "I remember you. You killed my brothers and sisters."

Chryseis would have asked what Duncan was talking about, except she now found it difficult to speak. Her movements were becoming slower, much to Neith-Maia's worry.

"You even gave me this scar, not to mention my nickname," Duncan continued. "Red Claw. I wouldn't mind it if it weren't for the fact that it reminds me of you and the pain you caused."

"Did you attack my daughter for that reason?!" Neith-Maia screamed, standing in front of Chryseis for protection.

Duncan stepped forward. "Now you know pain!"

"I knew pain before!" Neith-Maia shouted back. "You're lucky in comparison! At least your brothers didn't grow up like mine! Did Asar forget about your mother like he forgot about mine? Where's your stupid mother now?"

Duncan growled. "What right have you to mock my pain?! You did as such years ago! Never again!"

Duncan lunged at Neith-Maia, who kept her jaws open in order to rip a chunk out of him. However, they landed awkwardly, just missing Chryseis, who could barely move. They both roared at each other and whipped each other with tails, using their claws for offense. Duncan had pushed Neith-Maia against the wall and she had done the same for him. He proved himself to be unusually strong, but not as strong as Lothair. In any case, Neith-Maia was much older, so she had a chance of fighting him off.

Duncan pinned her on the canyon floor with both feet, making her struggle to get up. His tail was relatively close to the floor and he breathed on her neck, showing his teeth in a threatening manner. Neith-Maia started to cry.

"Now you know fear," Duncan taunted. "Fear of your own life, that of your mate's and that of your daughter's. I met your mate. Lance... lot? Oh well, whatever. He's dead. He was trying to defend 'little Chrissy' over there and some boulder fell on his head. She doesn't have much longer, you know. Now you know loss."

Neith-Maia spat at him. "I have known loss for much longer than you have! Don't tell me about loss!"

"SHUT UP!" Duncan shouted. "You ruined me because of your past, now I will do the same. Let me tell you–"

Neith-Maia spotted Chryseis struggling to stay up and the young T-Rex was keeping her eye on Duncan's tail. As soon as the wagging slowed, she used the last bit of her strength to jump up and bite it.

"AHHH!" Duncan roared as Chryseis hung on, making the male get off of Neith-Maia.

Duncan struggled for a moment before he swung his tail, hitting Chryseis against the canyon wall. Neith-Maia got up in time to see Chryseis fall to the ground, most of her bones broken. The impact caused part of the wall to break off, one piece sharp enough to pierce through Chryseis's abdomen. Several more pieces fell, a few getting Duncan's tail and one crushing his foot. Duncan struggled to get it off and Neith-Maia took it as the opportunity to run.

"Do you think I'll forget you?!" Duncan roared. "I'll find you! I'll haunt you and your children!"

Neith-Maia ran to the edge of a cliff, sobbing and choking on her own tears, and scanned her surroundings up to the horizon. A herd of longnecks that she had once encountered years ago were grazing on a few trees. Once again, she understood the few words that Zander had taught her and heard an old name belonging to a male, though there was no young male longneck present. She had only spotted two old-looking longnecks rubbing their heads against a young female, whom Neith-Maia guessed was their grown daughter, a gift that was taken away from the T-Rex. Neith-Maia let out a roar and the two elderly longnecks looked back in fear and confusion.

Only the young female, carrying an egg herself, seemed to understand Neith-Maia's cry of despair.

* * *

**For some reason, I imagined Neith-Maia's voice sounding like Emma Stone. Who's voices do you imagine?**

**Know the longneck female?**


	11. Meet

_Hungry_, he thought.

There was more than one meaning, he now realized, though part of him thought that he had known it from a young age. Most saurians thought of that feeling in one's stomach, how it could range from petulant to horribly taunting, and how it could control one's entire being if it wanted to. It had a sick control of him for his entire life, making him turn on those he was supposed to love. In his early years, he would feel pressured by his parents to control himself, to overcome that primal urge, and he would feel shame. However, guilt was impossible.

He had deduced that shame had to do with the _being,_ while guilt had to do with the _action._ He did not feel guilty for wanting to make a strong leap and kill something, anything, to satisfy his need. It had once made his father proud, but it always revolted his gentle mother. He was sure they were both long dead.

He remembered his siblings and how he longed to kill them both. He had seen them as inferior. However, he had not thought of age as being a factor in their weakness. Once he did, he saw them both as an increasing threat, though part of this had disappeared for some time. He made this realization shortly before his sister's hatching.

He hardly understood love, though he knew he must have felt it at some time. He _did_ have a love for hunting, but he wasn't sure that was the same as the feeling that overcame his mother when his sister hatched. She had been playful and happy, though he was sure he had succeeded in making her miserable now, and her intelligence had threatened him. Sure, he had brute strength, but he couldn't be sure about someone intellectually superior. His younger brother had already shown such aptitudes, but he had let it go, as the skills of his late brother would not help him in terms of defense, let alone offense. His sister, however, was not as keen to take up the strange notions of their brother, but generally valued the skills of survival. Therefore, her ability to learn quickly put him in a constant state of unease. He had had to wait for the right time to eliminate his threat.

Upon the absence of those who had given him life, he had decided to make his move. He would wait until they were weak enough physically and riddled with despair at the loss of their parents. Unfortunately, a single decision to delay his plan resulted in a failure.

He had searched for his younger siblings, bashing himself for underestimating their intelligence. Nearly all day, he had searched, and if his memory was reliable, it had lasted for a night as well. He had overheard his pathetic brother reprimanding his sister for leaving him, as the younger male had wanted to keep her safe. Riddled with anticipation for the attack, he couldn't help himself.

He had leaped for his sister, who, in a state of panic, tried to flee. He had almost gotten the chance to kill her when that petulant piece of flyer crap for a brother had distracted him. He foolishly allowed his own anger to make him focus on the male, killing him in the process, thus allowing that threat of a sister to flee. Since then, he had searched for her in the name of vengeance.

Throughout his search, he had wondered if all of his previous notions about her were true. He had thought he was especially incapable of appreciating her, but now he was mildly curious about whether or not she was alive and had found a mate (he had previously thought this was an impossibility). He had thought of finding a mate himself, but he constantly struggled about setting his standards. He didn't want someone weak, as that would be passed down to his children, but he didn't want someone too strong. Being usurped of his power seemed like a great crime to him.

He had been walking through a canyon and found a stench emitting from a pile of rocks. He decided to move them and found a young, bleeding T-Rex with a sharp edge piercing her abdomen and bones sticking out. She let out her last breath before letting her head drop and he praised himself for finding a free meal. As he ate, he couldn't help but wonder who her parents were.

At some point, in his stroll along the canyon, he found yet another dead T-Rex who resembled the one he just ate. He identified it as male and went on, wondering if the two T-Rexes were related.

He walked on, seeing vague footprints and following them, curious as to where they would lead him. At first, they led him to the edge of a cliff, where he saw footprints of pathetic Flatteeth. He then noticed that the path of footprints took a sharp turn and followed in, his curiosity growing. He had no idea of the sex of the Sharptooth he was following. If it were male, he would have an interesting spar, if not a thrilling fight to the death. If it were a female, he could finally satisfy this biological need he had restrained for so long. Whether or not she consented wasn't an immediate matter to him. He had the advantage of brute strength.

Finally, he found the source of the footprints: a young, beautiful female with scales the color of darkened leaves and eyes that shone like glistening blood of a prey animal. That urge to satisfy the aforementioned biological need suddenly overcame him, but he restrained it for a moment longer, as he wanted to become more familiar with the likes of this female.

Every sound he made, no matter how quiet, alerted her and she turned around. Once she caught sight of him, she nearly froze.

"So my reputation precedes me," he spoke. "Sad thing that I am still nameless to those that tremble at the sound of me."

The female seemed confused and she took a step to the side, as if figuring out how to approach the situation. The large, black male watched with interest. Finally, the female seemed to calm down.

"What's your name?" he asked her.

She seemed hesitant to answer. "Uhh, Sangreina."

He smiled. "Lothair."


	12. Force

Lothair inspected Sangreina. She really was quite attractive. Sangreina seemed young enough to produce children well, yet strong enough to defend and old enough to have learned quite a bit. He detected an air of maturity that exceeded her years. Her coyness had caught him off guard as well.

Sangreina seemed to have a mixed reaction about him. Her every movement revealed her sense of caution and fear, but Lothair decided not to make himself appear intimidating. If he was to mate with this female, he didn't want too much of a struggle, so he wanted her to consent to this (not that he cared much for another's emotions). His jaw was no longer clenched, he didn't attempt to bear his teeth, and his muscles were relaxed. Still, he revealed himself to have near-supernatural strength.

"Tell me about yourself, Sangreina," he spoke more softly than he was used to.

"Why would I?"

"All right then," he chuckled, further unnerving Sangreina. "Let me tell you about myself. I had a mother and a father, like everyone does, and I had a few siblings, like most do, and at some point, one died, like most do. Very typical, you see."

"Something tells me otherwise," Sangreina said coldly. "You reek of secrecy."

"Allow me to fix that then," Lothair replied, hiding his boiling frustration. "My father, Asar, was very similar to me in appearance. My mother, Mnemosyne, not so much. She, of course, is dead."

"And your 'few siblings'?" Sangreina asked rather harshly.

"Well, how impolite of me to neglect such a thing!"

"Why would someone of your reputation care about politeness?"

"You'd be surprised, Sangreina," Lothair continued, hoping his act would win her over. "As for my few siblings, I had one brother, boringly philosophical in nature to the point where it can kill him. I had a sister too, but who knows where the hell she is?"

Sangreina nodded in comprehension and looked around, walking away. Lothair was puzzled by her behavior and followed her closely behind, curious as to what prompted her actions. He guessed that she remained wary because of what she heard about him. Rather excited by his newfound challenge, he pursued her.

"What?" he challenged. "I tell you about my life and you don't utter a word?"

"Just tell me why I should."

"Because you telling me that I reek of secrecy when you share absolutely nothing is very hypocritical, at least from where I'm standing," he retorted, satisfied with his clever comeback.

"Why would I share something to someone who has an advantage?" she asked coldly.

Sangreina started to frustrate him. Still, he had to rein in his temper, otherwise things would fail. He would have no mate, no offspring to spread his legacy of fierceness, and he would have no way to satisfy that biological urge. Use the right moves and Sangreina could satisfy all three needs.

"To show that you trust me," Lothair attempted to win the argument. "I've told you about my life, haven't I?"

"Only a few names," Sangreina replied. "Those of your parents."

"Okay, _fine!_ Mnemosyne died of a disease, Asar left my siblings and I, my brother Zander died and my sister Neith-Maia ran away and is very likely dead. You happy?"

Sangreina half-nodded and half-shook her head, raising a scaly eyebrow. Her lips contorted a bit and she looked away before seemingly deciding to tell her own history, which mildly interested Lothair.

"My father was named Vasilias and my mother was Vevodkyne. I was the first to hatch, the second being a little male named Ippotis."

"What happened to Ippotis?"

Sangreina shrugged apathetically. "I had to take care of him after my parents left. He couldn't keep up, to say the least."

_So she's a bit like me_, Lothair mused to himself. He stepped forward, noticing that she hadn't stepped back, and thought that maybe he earned her trust. She seemed calmer around him and he scanned her once more, realizing that she had some strength to her. Forceful copulation would prove difficult, but not impossible. Still, he thought it should be the last resort, as he realized he didn't want brute strength to be his only asset.

Sangreina walked away nonchalantly, prompting Lothair to follow her, and she led him to a group of lesser predators. Lothair watched as Sangreina swiftly caught one in her mouth, piercing the neck and causing the creature instant death. She let it drop to the ground, taking bites out of it and savoring her meal. Lothair smiled and decided to catch one, tossing it up in the air several times and causing it severe pain before he decided to end its life. Sangreina nearly winced.

"What?"

* * *

Lothair left Sangreina alone for periods of time, but he would still keep track of her. This resulted in increased paranoia on Sangreina's part. He noticed her hyper-vigilance and wondered if that would lead to her escaping his grasp. After some time of entertaining that thought, he decided he couldn't really take it. He had done his waiting for years.

Sangreina was absentmindedly taking bites out of a hard-earned meal when Lothair approached her from behind. He nudged her head softly, a gesture she withdrew from, and Lothair thought this a bad sign.

"Have you ever... had a mate?" he asked.

"No," she replied coldly.

"Hmm, me neither," Lothair replied. "Though we could fix that problem for each other."

"Problem for you," Sangreina replied. "Not for me. Who said I want fixing?"

He scooted himself closer, now hovering over her. He shifted his leg around hers, making sure she would keep still, and steadied himself. Sangreina attempted to resist.

"Lothair," her voice shook. "What are you doing?"

"Just because you don't want fixing doesn't mean I still don't need it," Lothair replied.

Sangreina wriggled under his body, later becoming violent shakes. "Leave me alone! Get off of me, now!"

"Resist me and I'll bite you!"

"Get off of – OW!"

Lothair had inflicted no bite mark. Instead, he satiated the three needs he thought the female would satisfy. At first, she violently shook her body in order to resist him, but he demoralized her enough that she stood still, sobbing and roaring in despair. Presumably every creature within a five mile radius heard her cries and fled, for they knew the danger that awaited them if they remained, and the pair was left alone.

Lothair finished and let Sangreina struggle on her now wobbly, sore legs. Her entire body quaked as she cried hysterically and tried to walk away. Lothair smiled, knowing that he no longer had the burden of such a task weighing on his shoulders, and snickered.

"Weakling," he scoffed. "Just like my sister."

"Funny thing, since you failed to kill me all these years," Lothair heard her mutter under her breath, coming to a sudden realization.

His abrupt anger was soon subsided by the thought that her carrying his offspring and the memory of his deed was enough to drive her over the edge, so yet another goal of his that he had pursued for so long could complete itself without him.


	13. Friend

Neith-Maia watched Lothair walk away and was unable to move. Every time she moved her legs, the pain Lothair had inflicted on her would strengthen. As a result, she stayed put until that strange wound would somewhat heal. As his menacing figure disappeared into the horizon, she screamed that she hated him and wanted him dead, prompting only a chuckle from the monster. Neith-Maia laid down on the baked ground, weeping for his last offense against her. She couldn't get up for more than a day.

As Neith-Maia regained some strength due to the pain between her legs lessening, she noticed that her abdomen felt heavier than it normally would. She remembered having a similar feeling when she held Chryseis's egg inside herself and dreaded the realization that followed: she was to have Lothair's child.

She knew that if she did not eat, the egg would consume whatever it could to feed the child, so her energy would simply burn faster. As a result, she would hunt just enough to keep herself fed, but nothing more. After a few days, she started to feel sluggish and wondered if she even wanted to go on anymore.

Sometimes she would stare at her own reflection in a small pond and remember what Zander said about recognizing oneself and what that meant in terms of intelligence. As of late, she would no longer had any idea who she saw in the water, only that her reflection was bitter and torn. She guessed that she had felt that same way too at some point, but she only recognized her own numbness now. Well, that and the added burden that never seemed to escape her abdomen.

Occasionally, she would ponder the possibility of nonexistence and the more she thought about it, the more she saw it as a way to escape pain. It became less of something she feared and for days, she would fantasize about it. To Neith-Maia, it seemed like an endless sleep.

Now that she actually considered going through with it, she thought of what it meant for the unwanted child. It would never live, it would never kill, and it would never have the chance to grow up like his psychopathic father. The thought made her want to pursue that endless sleep even more.

One day, she simply stopped caring. She could hardly feel her own hunger and felt her fat and muscles slowly withering. Soon enough, she could look down and see her ribs protruding and feel herself dehydrate.

Some smaller predators ran past her in a frenzy and Neith-Maia heard the pounding footsteps of a Sharptooth female nearby. She could barely move her head to see who was coming. The female came into Neith-Maia's view and her head swooped down, grabbing a smaller struthiomimus and crushing its neck when Neith-Maia recognized the female by her yellow eyes and orange-brown skin. It was Tanith, Asar's (presumably) second mate, who had laid the egg that became Duncan. They made eye contact and Tanith froze.

After a moment, Tanith dropped the dead struthiomimus on Neith-Maia's mouth and the green female tasted the blood that leaked onto her tongue. The smell of the meal reminded Neith-Maia of her own hunger and she slowly bit a piece of the carcass. She struggled to chew, but once she had swallowed the meat, she already felt the effects the food had on her.

Neith-Maia looked at Tanith with a confused gaze and got up, taking one last bite. Tanith swooped her head to grab another meal for herself and snapped its neck, dropping it to the floor. The two females made eye contact and Neith-Maia sighed.

"You don't remember me, do you?" Neith-Maia spoke.

"Yes, I do," Tanith replied. "You broke my eggs and warned me of my future."

Neith-Maia took a step back. "You – you mean, you're not angry about the eggs?"

Tanith shook her head. "No. Either Duncan would have killed them or turned them into monsters. It's been years, anyway."

"And what happened to your mate, er, my dad?"

Tanith sighed and looked down. "You were right about him. He abandoned me to Duncan."

Neith-Maia sat down and stared at the little lump in her abdomen. Tanith saw the bump that Neith-Maia was staring at and looked closely, recognizing it for what it was.

"That egg looks like it's going to be overgrown," Tanith said. "Whose is it?"

Neith-Maia sulked and walked away.

* * *

Tanith decided to look out for Neith-Maia. Despite her initial anger over the eggs, she realized that they had actually shared common pasts. Neith-Maia had a psychopathic brother; she had a psychopathic son. They were both abandoned by the male they thought they could trust. When Tanith saw the starved female laying on the baked ground, she couldn't help but feel sorry for her.

She couldn't help but wonder who gave Neith-Maia her egg, which should have been coming out soon, but something about it told Tanith that it was going to stay there for a long time. She remembered encountering a female named Ducissa who had had the same problem. The egg grew too big and she couldn't push it out without it killing her.

Neith-Maia tolerated Tanith's companionship and Tanith helped her regain her strength. Neith-Maia started to trust her more and they eventually started talking about Tanith's past. It started one night when they were sharing a slain three-horn.

"What were your parents like?" Neith-Maia asked.

Tanith swallowed a chunk of meat. "My mother's name was Imperatrice. She had mated with a male named Bourreau and produced my older sister, Epine. She had some abnormality. I later learned that my parents were cousins."

"What was the abnormality?"

Tanith looked up at the sky for a moment. "She had only one eye and her scales were completely white."

"Oh," Neith-Maia replied.

"Did you, um, have children?" Tanith asked.

Neith-Maia nodded. "One."

Tanith took another bite from the bloody carcass and swallowed it whole. "What was her name?"

Neith-Maia remained silent and Tanith knew not to broach that subject. Instead, she looked at the lump in Neith-Maia's abdomen. She couldn't stop staring at it. Her action made Neith-Maia feel self-conscious and the green female moved slightly to her side, trying to conceal it.

"I knew someone who had that kind of egg," Tanith said. "Her name was Ducissa. Laying those eggs are... risky."

"What happened?" Neith-Maia asked in a monotone voice.

"I remember her thinking of quite a few names for her baby. If it was a boy, she'd have named it Casisto or Tiratore. If it was a girl, she would have named it Stella or Oscurita."

"Stupid names," Neith-Maia muttered bitterly.

Tanith ignored the comment. "She tried to lay the egg, but it tore her up a bit and she lost a bit of blood. The shell broke. Ducissa almost died."

"How about you shut up for a while so I can sleep," Neith-Maia spat and turned away.

Tanith and Neith-Maia took some time to get used to each other and the orange-brown female noticed that when Neith-Maia slept, she would twitch and shake. Sometimes, Neith-Maia would cry softly in the middle of the night, but when she saw Tanith noticing this, she would turn her head and try to go back to sleep.

* * *

_"Hello, baby girl."_

_Neith-Maia looked up at Mnemosyne affectionately. The older T-Rex was dangling a piece of meat from her teeth and Neith-Maia was jumping up, trying to get it. She wagged her tiny stump of a tail and Zander, somewhere in the background, laughed at her childish mannerisms. Neith-Maia caught the piece of meat and wagged her tail with glee, throwing up the meat in the air and entertaining herself. _

_Zander grabbed the meat and dragged it on the floor, waiting for Neith-Maia to chase after it excitedly. Sure enough, she did, and Zander had to restrain his laughter in order to keep dragging the meat. Neith-Maia tripped and rolled on her back, prompting Zander to drop the piece of meat and lick her stomach. She kicked and laughed, licking Zander back, and the two nudged noses._

_Suddenly, Neith-Maia saw Asar standing by a dead Mnemosyne. Asar stared at the pair coldly and walked backward, fading into the surrounding mist, and the head of something far worse hovered over the pair. They both looked up._

_Lothair swooped down and grabbed Zander with his teeth, throwing him about. Neith-Maia watched helplessly as Zander landed on the ground, the fall snapping his neck. She stood up to run when she felt something pull her back. She was pushed down into submission._

_Ahead of her, she saw the pile of dead loved ones. Behind her, she felt something invading her and recognized it as Lothair. She couldn't move an inch under Lothair's weight._

_First, that pile was just Mnemosyne. Then, it was Zander and Asar, then Lancelot and Chryseis. She feared that Tanith would come next._

_Duncan appeared from the mist, smiling at Neith-Maia's pain. Again, she tried to fight off Lothair, but he simply threatened to hurt her again, so she submitted. Her pain grew and Duncan let out a roaring laugh as he jumped onto the dead body pile. Lothair became rougher and she howled in pain, prompting mockery from her two brothers. Her world seemed to crumble and she could sense nothing but whatever Lothair inflicted._

Neith-Maia woke up sobbing.

* * *

**Hey, readers!  
**

**Leave a review stating any criticisms, predictions and whatnot! I'd love to hear any ideas from you that I'll (maybe) incorporate into my writing. I'll still find a way to shock you all.**


	14. Problem

"Neith-Maia," Tanith cooed. "Tell me what's really wrong."

After days, even weeks, of Tanith staying by her side, helping her hunt, and giving her a reason to live, despite that Neith-Maia killed her potential children, she couldn't say no to her. Tanith was sitting beside Neith-Maia, nudging her head against hers in order to comfort her, and Neith-Maia tried to stop crying. When she decided that she could speak somewhat coherently, she decided to confide the identity of the child's father.

"Th-that psychopath of a-a-a brother of m-mine!" she cried. "He d-did this to me!"

Tanith's jaw dropped. "You mean the one who killed your other brother? He was... Lothair?"

"He did this to me!"

Tanith didn't say anything else. She just sat beside her, letting her weep, and gave her comfort whenever she needed it. She no longer pushed for answers.

* * *

Neith-Maia and Tanith were searching for prey. There had been a tremendous earthquake (which Neith-Maia heard Flatteeth call 'Earth Shake') just days before. Neith-Maia had seen several fall to their doom and had previously witnessed a battle between a female longneck and a T-Rex. When she had been able to identify the features of the two, she recognized the female as the longneck she had encountered twice: once in her childhood, when Zander took her to hunt, and another when she roared a cry of despair and only that female had recognized her true intent. The identity of the T-Rex brought back way too many horrific memories for her to look any more, so she and Tanith had fled the scene with concern not for food, but for safety.

Some days later, Neith-Maia found a deceased longneck with a large flesh wound on her back. Tanith had licked her lips when she saw it, but Neith-Maia immediately recognized her as the one who dared to fight Lothair. Neith-Maia wondered why Lothair had decided to target her in the middle of an earthquake when she saw tiny footsteps leading up to her head. The footsteps looked like they belonged to a juvenile and Neith-Maia wondered if this female had a son.

Tanith was about to take a bite when Neith-Maia inexplicably roared at her. Tanith was startled.

"We've been trying to find food and now you won't let me eat?!" Tanith asked.

Neith-Maia struggled to come up with a reason. "It's just, uh, my mother ate scavenged meat and I–I think that's how she got sick."

Tanith shrugged and sat down stubbornly. She looked around, her stomach rumbling, and she huffed.

"Look, if you want to sulk next to a dead Flattooth, go ahead, but I'm hunting."

"Fine!" Neith-Maia snapped.

When Tanith left, Neith-Maia looked for tree branches to break. Unfortunately, there were no trees, so Neith-Maia resorted to placing rocks around the body. Neith-Maia tried to remember her name and wondered how on Earth she could recognize an insignificant longneck that she encountered only twice in her life. Sharpteeth and Flatteeth weren't even supposed to recognize each other's intelligence, emotions, appearance, let alone individual worth. Yet, Neith-Maia was here, mourning for the longneck she never knew.

Neith-Maia supposed that she mourned for the Flattooth because of their shared pain. Never, ever, had she seen Flatteeth fight so valiantly in a battle that they were sure to lose. She spied the gaping wound that sealed the fate of the longneck and understood why she mourned.

The first reason was that this creature, aside from Zander, was the only one who contradicted the laws of predator/prey relationships in order to understand the strange. The second reason was that, like Zander, she fought not to defend herself, but someone she loved. Neith-Maia spied the fading footsteps of the longneck's baby (or Neith-Maia thought it was still a baby). It was then when Neith-Maia remembered the longneck's name.

"Nosipho."

* * *

"Ahh!"

Neith-Maia alerted Tanith of a black, male Sharptooth and hid. Tanith spied the male and raised an eyebrow.

"Is that Lothair?" Tanith asked. "He's not as muscly as you described him."

"What?" Neith-Maia replied, peeking behind her hiding place and sighing a breath of relief.

Neith-Maia saw that, unlike Lothair, this male was about the same size as her. His skin was a tad bit lighter than Lothair's and his red eyes had an orange tint to them. His expression seemed more docile and he had an air of intelligence that reminded her of Zander. Neith-Maia revealed herself and caught the male's eye. Tanith huffed a bit in jealousy.

The mysterious male approached them both and Tanith started to girlishly chuckle. Neith-Maia kicked the other female's leg softly.

"I thought I saw a herd of Saurolophuses, but I don't know where they went," the male said sheepishly, though Neith-Maia thought he feigned this.

"I could help you find them, if you want," the orange-brown female smiled. "My name's Tanith."

"Conleth," said the male. "And her?"

Neith-Maia turned away and looked for the herd that Conleth was talking about. She spotted them in the distance and huffed.

"And me?" Neith-Maia replied. "I'm hungry."

"Okay, Hungry," Conleth joked. "Nice to meet you."

Neith-Maia was already proceeding toward the herd when Conleth had made his remark. It didn't take her long to get there, as she was a pretty fast T-Rex, and by the time Tanith had stopped chatting with Conleth, Neith-Maia had already killed one of the Big-Mouths.

She cleanly snapped its neck and set it down, taking a bite of the skin. She looked up at Tanith and Conleth with a smirk.

"You think I'm going to feed you?" Neith-Maia asked. "I'm not your mother. Feed yourselves."

Tanith growled and helped Conleth get their meal, much to Neith-Maia's amusement. Despite what Tanith had experienced, Neith-Maia regarded her as remarkably innocent. Neith-Maia supposed she had been like that too, at some point in the past.

Tanith and Conleth dragged the dead body near Neith-Maia and ate beside her. Tanith tried to flirt with him a little bit, but Conleth seemed disinterested. Neith-Maia savagely ripped out a chunk and, upon swallowing it, let out a loud burp.

"So, Hungry," Conleth teased. "What's your real name?"

"Her name is–"

"Tanith," Neith-Maia said irritably. "If I wanted him to know my real name, I would have told him."

"Why won't you tell me your name?" Conleth asked.

"Can I refuse you a reason?"

"I trusted you with my name. Isn't it absurd that you don't trust me with yours?"

"Names are hardly a basis for trust," Neith-Maia said. "I learned that the hard way."

* * *

Conleth decided to travel with Tanith and... Hungry. That was all he knew her by and, though he was determined to learn her name, he knew he couldn't force her. From the start, she gave him the impression of a strong will and a stone heart. Tanith was incredibly soft in comparison.

"My family is a bit strange," Tanith spoke. "My mother, Imperatrice, mated with her cousin, Bourreau. My sister, Epine, was deformed. She was all white and had one eye. She was very sweet, but she hardly spoke. Bourreau didn't like her very much. Tell me about your family."

Conleth replied to her request. "My father, Alastor, wouldn't shut up about his family. He had a brother named Asar–"

'Hungry' looked back. "Asar? He was your uncle?"

"Yes, 'Hungry'. Did you know him?"

Tanith spoke softly. "He was my first mate before he left me."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Conleth whispered before he continued. "Alastor also wouldn't shut up about how he met my mother, Desdemona. He kept talking about how she was trapped on a rock surrounding by flowing lava and how he knocked down a heavy tree in order for her to get to safety."

"That sounds very sweet," Tanith smiled.

"Is 'Hungry' over there finally going to say her name?" Conleth asked.

"Don't mock me, you piece of flyer-shit."

"It's a _name!_" Conleth replied. "Just say it!"

"Neith-Maia," she said. "Are you happy now?!"

Conleth kept his mouth shut for the rest of the night.

* * *

Conleth had gone off to hunt for himself and Neith-Maia told him she would find some food for herself and for Tanith. Tanith's infatuation for Conleth grew, but Tanith noticed that Conleth had taken a liking to Neith-Maia. Neith-Maia could give a three-horn's ass about Conleth, which somehow, only made Conleth more curious. For this reason, Neith-Maia thought he was an idiot.

When both females saw that Conleth was out of earshot, Tanith decided to speak to Neith-Maia.

"He wants to mate with you," Tanith said. "I can tell by the way he looks at you."

"I don't think I can have another mate, Tanith," Neith-Maia sighed.

"Who was the father of your previous child?" Tanith asked. "You never told me."

"His name was Lancelot. We had a daughter named Chryseis, but Duncan killed both of them." Neith-Maia said. "I still miss him."

"You're still carrying that egg, Neith-Maia," Tanith said. "If you lay it and Conleth knows it's not his, he'll crush it."

"Good," Neith-Maia huffed bitterly.

Tanith stood up. "It's not the child's fault any of this happened. He... or she never did anything that made it unworthy of life. For all you know, your child will be nothing like his father."

"How would you know?" Neith-Maia stood up and roared. "It could be deformed like your sister! There could be something wrong with it! I hate carrying it for longer than it should be carried! It's like a wound that refuses to heal!"

Tanith breathed deeply. "I can tell that you're actually going to lay it soon. Make Conleth think it's his and the egg could hatch. If it turns out deformed or whatnot, Conleth can kill it."

Despite her disgust with Conleth, Neith-Maia actually considered Tanith's idea.

* * *

"Aren't you gonna eat?"

Tanith was already gorging on the kill that Neith-Maia made. Conleth was looking at Neith-Maia skeptically and the green female was sulking, thinking about her child's prospects. She hoped that if she raised it right, teaching it what Zander had taught her, then it won't grow up to be another Lothair. Neith-Maia could teach it that Flatteeth had a language as well and tell it the story of the longneck that she had mourned over, despite not knowing her. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that a victory against Lothair meant not killing his child, but making it something that Lothair despised.

"Talk about your family, Conleth," Tanith suggested.

"I told you about them."

"You never told Neith-Maia."

Conleth straightened himself. "My father, Alastor, met my dear mother Desdemona when he was saving her life. Now, he always liked to tell this story, amongst others. My father liked to talk about his family, particularly about his brother."

"Asar," Neith-Maia mumbled. "I _do_ listen to some of your conversations."

"Alastor would keep talking and talking about his spars with Asar. They were actually twins," Conleth mentioned. "Then there was Desdemona. I remember, as soon as I hatched, Desdemona wouldn't stop chattering about the prospect of me having a little sibling. Turns out I ended up with a little sister named Celosia."

"You didn't treat her like flyer-shit, did you?" Neith-Maia asked.

"No," Conleth scoffed. "She was too snarky. I remember she said that when she got older, she would battle _the most feared Sharptooth_!"

Tanith cracked her neck. "Oh, _him_. Neith-Maia is his sister, you know."

Neith-Maia spat out the chunk of meat she had in her mouth and let out a roar. "Tanith!"

For the first time, Conleth had an expression of true concern for Neith-Maia. Tanith looked away from Neith-Maia's sharp gaze and the green female bared her teeth. Tanith gulped.

"It must have been hard," Conleth spoke, breaking the silence. "To be raised around someone like that."

Tanith tried to restrain a smile. "Well, nature calls and when a girl gotta go, a girl gotta go."

Tanith left Conleth and Neith-Maia alone, much to the annoyance of the red-eyed female. Conleth scooted closer to Neith-Maia, who was staring at the odd little lump in her abdomen, which, to her surprise, went unnoticed by Conleth this entire time.

Conleth nudged her softly. "Are you okay?"

Inappropriately, she chuckled. "Considering my brother is a psychopath, no, I'm not okay."

Conleth whispered solemnly. "What did he do to you?"

"He took my innocence."

"What do you mean?" Conleth asked. "Who is the Most-Feared Sharptooth, truly?"

"His name is Lothair," Neith-Maia answered. "He killed his younger – my older – brother, Zander. He tried to kill me too."

"Oh," Conleth.

Neith-Maia decided to change the subject. "Tanith likes you."

"I can tell."

"And she told me you wanted to mate with me."

"Well," he said, cocking his head to the side. "You wouldn't be a bad mate, you know, when you _do_ reveal your name."

Neith-Maia looked at the lump in her abdomen and saw her opportunity. She knew that Tanith left them alone so they could 'mate' and she wondered how much time she had. She saw Conleth turn away and quickly breathed on him, surprising him.

"Uhh, let's make a deal," Neith-Maia stammered. "I will be your mate."

"Really?" Conleth asked, surprised. "You never really seemed to like me."

"On one condition," Neith-Maia replied. "You mate with Tanith too. I know you only see her as a friend, but she's my friend too and I want her to be happy. You really have no idea how much I value her, no matter how poorly I treat her. Do you understand?"

Conleth nodded. Neith-Maia looked up at the moon and back at Conleth, nudging and breathing on him. Strangely, she felt sick trying to attract him.

"Tanith's not here, so..."

Conleth looked at her in understanding. "Really? Now? Are you sure?"

"Yes," Neith-Maia said with a feigned purr. "Now."

As Conleth got up to 'crack her shell', Neith-Maia tried to suppress the memories of Lothair's violation, instead trying to remember her first time with Lancelot. Still, the awful memory of Lothair came up and she tried to hide her signs of misery from Conleth, who, to be honest, was a bit rough. Still, she hoped that Conleth would believe that Neith-Maia's egg was his as well. When this thought came up, her mind drifted to the one female that convinced her to do this.

_Tanith, I hope you're happy._


	15. Egg

Neith-Maia noticed that Conleth was acting less obnoxious since they mated. He was gentler towards her and she started to enjoy his sense of humor. Tanith was still trying to gain his affections and Neith-Maia reminded him of the deal they made. One night, after she gave them a full hour alone, she returned to Tanith, who was quite beside herself.

"I can't believe it!" Tanith squealed with a smile. "We - we mated!"

"Uh huh," Neith-Maia replied. "Why do you think I gave you an hour?"

"I'm already thinking of child's names," she whispered.

"Good for you."

Tanith looked at Neith-Maia's lump again. "What do you plan to name your child?"

Neith-Maia looked down at it. "If it's a girl, then Mnemosyne. If it's a boy, then Zander."

"Oh," Tanith replied. "That's so sweet. It it's a boy, I want to name it Poignard. If a girl, oh I don't know. There's names like Ecarlate, Cramoisi, Amarante..."

Neith-Maia left them alone again to eavesdrop on a Flattooth herd and tried to test out how much Flattooth she could speak. She didn't understand many words, but she would pick up words like "food", "water" and "no Sharptooth". She listened again, hearing only mutters, and walked a bit closer. Finally, she heard "valley" and "sunset", understanding what she had to do now.

She returned to Conleth and Tanith with the news.

"Hey, you!" Neith-Maia spoke.

Tanith was a little busy with Conleth.

"Hello, my fellow theropods!" Neith-Maia said again, rather annoyed. "Damn it! I have something to tell you, now stop talking about cracking each other's shells!"

Conleth focused his attention on Neith-Maia. Tanith did as well, but she was still looking at Conleth's tail from behind. Neith-Maia rolled her eyes.

"I overheard a conversation in which a huge Valley in the West was mentioned," Neith-Maia said. "There's abundant food and water and I heard that no Sharpteeth live. Think about it, no competition."

Tanith seemed to like the idea. Conleth was more skeptical.

"No Sharpteeth?" Conleth asked. "As in they don't have access? What are the chances that we'd get in?"

"He has a good point," Tanith conceded.

"I'm not saying we'll get in necessarily, though we can try," Neith-Maia said. "I mean that other herds will probably head in that direction. Instead of wandering aimlessly for food, we can always track our source."

The trio decided to head west.

* * *

Conleth was excitedly chasing a few pachycephalosauruses, much to Tanith's delight. Neith-Maia knew that it wasn't Tanith he was trying to impress. Every time Conleth would successfully kill a dome-head, he would glance at Neith-Maia to see if she was smiling. Rarely did she smile at this for two reasons.

One, dome-heads were pathetically easy to hunt. They weren't large by any means and they were relatively slow. To other predators, they may have been fast, but T-Rexes such as herself could cover much ground in a few leaping steps.

Two, she couldn't really bring herself to love Conleth. Tanith was falling for him and, by taking her advice, Neith-Maia felt as if she betrayed her somehow. Conleth's mating with Tanith only made the orange-brown female want him more and Neith-Maia knew that Conleth didn't really return her affections.

Tanith smiled as Conleth brought back yet another dome-head for her. She licked his snout playfully and Neith-Maia looked away, staring at the lump in her stomach. She just wanted this over with.

"Neith-Maia," Conleth asked. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"I'm not particularly hungry."

* * *

Tanith decided to hunt alone one day and Conleth approved of her choice. He said so under the pretenses that he wanted to be impressed with her hunt, but Neith-Maia knew that Conleth just wanted some time alone with her. Once Tanith was out of sight, Neith-Maia knew what Conleth wanted to do.

Conleth sat down next to her and she turned her head in another direction. He nudged her neck gently.

"Are you okay, Neith-Maia?" he asked. "You haven't really talked to me since we... you know."

"Have I talked much to you before?"

"Well, no," he replied. "But you _did_ open up to me that night."

"Open what? My past or my legs?"

Conleth sighed. "Did I do something?"

Neith-Maia shook her head. "It's not you, all right? I can't talk about it, but none of this is your fault."

"What do you mean, you can't talk about it?"

"I really wish you'd stop asking so many questions."

Conleth sighed and nudged her gently, trying to comfort her. She pulled back and he looked away.

* * *

Neith-Maia was walking ahead of Tanith and Conleth when she saw a pond and a cliff in the distance. At first, all she saw was a group of young dinosaurs, all different species, all screaming and entering a cave of some sort. When she saw what they were running from, her heart froze.

A particularly small herbivore youth was running out of the cave and diving into the pond below, luring her worst enemy into the shallow end. Lothair was stomping around as Neith-Maia watched from a distance, her legs unable to move, and she saw the other young herbivores emerge from the cave on a cliff. There was a large boulder perched on the cliff and one tiny flyer (the species Lothair always mocked in his youth) fell down, riding the breath that Lothair had let out. She watched as the little pterodactyl flew down to save his swimmer friend, bringing her back up to safety, and Lothair found the strength to jump onto the cliff. The larger youth struggled to push the boulder until a small triceratops came racing out of the cave, using her strong head to finally push the boulder off the cliff, taking Lothair down with it.

Her heart raced as she watched Lothair sink into the pond, relieved to have her single worst fear off her back. She was too far away to really identify those that had finished him off. Whoever they were, she gave a silent prayer of gratitude to whomever would listen to her humble growl.

Suddenly, she felt a pain in her abdomen.

Neith-Maia realized that she would lay her egg soon and tried to walk around the walled off haven, attempting to find a suitable place to keep her egg. Conleth and Tanith, who have now caught up to her, saw that she was walking oddly, but only Tanith knew why. She didn't bother to ask Neith-Maia because, even with an egg attempting to push itself out, Neith-Maia would still be considerably superior in strength.

"No wonder Flatteeth want to get in here," Conleth muttered. "It's nearly impossible for us to get in."

"A bit odd," Tanith replied. "Considering that full grown herbivores can be twice our size. Especially apatosauruses."

"Longnecks," Conleth scoffed.

"If a Long neck could get in, then I'm sure we can," Neith-Maia speculated. "Unless the denizens of this haven can control who does and doesn't enter."

"HA!" Conleth laughed. "You really think they're that smart."

Neith-Maia huffed. "I _know_ they're that smart."

* * *

Neith-Maia was near a pit when the egg had had enough of staying inside her body. She could no longer suppress and keep walking, so she stood in it, trying to squeeze it out as much as possible. This was _far_ more painful than when she laid Chryseis's egg.

Tanith and Conleth watched from outside the pit, both slightly squeamish at the sight. Though Tanith somewhat knew what to expect, Conleth was genuinely surprised. The egg was halfway out and Neith-Maia had to spread her legs in order to compensate for the egg's size. She let out whimpers and Conleth went up to her, trying to comfort her.

"Keep going," he would whisper. "You're doing good, just keep going."

"This is fucking painful!"

Conleth would have scratched his head if his dangly arms were long enough. The egg was three quarters out and Neith-Maia's muscles gave one final push, making the egg plop to the ground. Once it was out, she let out a huge sigh of relief and Conleth marveled at what he thought was his own egg.

Tanith walked up beside them. "Let's roll that egg up to that little cavern and nestle it between those branches. Here, it could get crushed or something."

Neith-Maia agreed and used her snout and tongue to maneuver the egg. As she rolled it, she noticed it had blue and orange speckles. She finally got it up in the mini cavern and struggled to get it nestled in the tree roots. Once she did, she took a deep breath and looked at the thing.

At that moment, she remembered Lothair's death. She struggled to keep herself from laughing, as she found the circumstances surrounding his demise ironic. For years, he refused to acknowledge any cognitive capability of any Flattooth and took pleasure in torturing them mercilessly. She realized that his underestimating a Flattooth's intelligence was his fatal flaw. She tried to remember who those Flatteeth children were and failed, but nevertheless was grateful for their deed. _Ha! The Most-Feared Sharptooth was killed by Flatteeth children! Zander was right about us paying our debts._

Tanith, standing beside Neith-Maia, sulked. Despite knowing the circumstances behind Neith-Maia's egg, she wished that she had an egg of her own. On many occasions, she tried to convince Conleth to 'crack her shell', but in the few times that he did, she failed to develop an egg. She was convinced that he would think of her useless now. He had already been smitten by Neith-Maia, so Tanith was just an extra mouth to feed. She hoped she would have a child soon, or she would simply be chased away.

"Hmm," Conleth purred near Neith-Maia's ear. "What are you going to name it?"

"If a girl, Mnemosyne," she whispered back. "If a boy, then Zander."


	16. Leave

Neith-Maia and Conleth would find ways to keep the egg warm, sometimes breathing on it, other times surrounding it with branches and what not. To her annoyance, some plant-eating creature would gobble the damn leaves. Neith-Maia would stare at it often, wondering how the child would turn out, and hope that Lothair's psychopathy was not hereditary. If it was, she wasn't sure she could bring herself to kill her offspring. She thought about Lothair's carcass rotting in the pond, chunks of his flesh being eaten by carnivorous little scavenging fish, and the feeling of running out of air. Neith-Maia tried to hold her breath for as long as she could and when she tired of that feeling of suffocation, she let out a gasp. She concluded that drowning would be a horrible way to die.

Conleth was out for a hunt when Tanith scooted to her side, staring at the egg.

"I wish I had an egg," Tanith sighed.

"I wish I didn't have to lie about mine," Neith-Maia replied. "Or worry about what it'll be like."

"I've been asking him to try again and again with me," Tanith responded. "But no luck."

Neith-Maia huffed. "You think _that's_ such a huge problem? Try being forced upon _by your brother_! Try lying about it to someone! Try holding it in your body until you bled! Try–"

Tanith stood up and looked ahead of her, her voice somewhat hushed as she paced away. "Considering the prospects of your son being mentally messed up? That, I've done before."

"Tanith," she said. "I'm sorry."

Tanith ignored her.

"Tanith, really, I am sorry."

Tanith turned around and approached her again. "I've helped you in your time of need, why can't you help me?"

Neith-Maia hung her head low. She couldn't answer.

* * *

It had been a week since Neith-Maia laid the egg and since then, she had been watching over it with the utmost care. Meanwhile, she noticed that the skeleton-filled pit her egg was next to had filled up with dark, murky water, and a strange, lithe, swimming creature had taken residence in the new pond. Sometimes she would get bored and try to catch it with her mouth, but the thing would always evade her, so she grew tired of the pastime.

Tanith walked up to her side, nudging her head. Neith-Maia turned to her.

"Um," Tanith said nervously. "Conleth and I are planning to uhh... try again."

"Let me guess," she huffed. "You want me to leave you two to copulate?"

Tanith nodded.

"Ugh, fine."

Neith-Maia moved away, hoping not to hear Conleth and Tanith's heavy breathing as she left. She wandered around, hoping that maybe there was an entrance to the valley that no one had discovered yet. She speculated the idea that Flatteeth had a way to hide it and wondered how they could possibly pull that off. If it was possible, then there must have been something that made those Flatteeth more intelligent. If so, then could it possibly run in their bloodstream? Could it affect the Sharpteeth that ate them? She pondered the possible benefits of such a discovery and wondered if that was part of the Flattooth legend about the mysterious valley.

Oh, if only she could take a peek inside the valley!

Neith-Maia noticed that the sun was setting and decided to sleep away from Conleth and Tanith. She was getting too tired to return to them and in any case, she wouldn't be any more vulnerable alone. Now that Lothair was dead, she didn't have much to fear, and Tanith's son – her half-brother – couldn't be very near. Duncan wasn't as strong or as fast as Lothair.

Now that she was lying awake, she wondered why Lothair hadn't killed her after he forced himself upon her. Hadn't it been his goal to kill her? She remembered how naive she had been about his nature in her youth. Mnemosyne and Zander had put their efforts toward protecting her. Why not Asar?

Once she started thinking about Zander, she couldn't stop. She tried to remember a conversation she had with him before Lothair killed him.

_"You're the best brother I've had," she sighed deeply._

_"Considering your only other brother is a depraved cannibal, that's not saying much," he replied._

_"Don't you know not to ruin compliments?" Neith-Maia responded. "And for all I know, he could have eaten the other children Mother and Father had and spared your life because he was bloated."_

_"Neith-Maia!" Zander whined petulantly._

_"I was only joking," she justified._

_"I'm serious, sissy," he replied. "Do you have any idea how much I worried for your life because of Lothair? Bright Circle forbid that he was near you when you reached maturity! I can't imagine what he would do to you then!"_

"Well, Zander," she whispered to the night. "He did the unimaginable."

* * *

Neith-Maia decided to wake up early and return to where Conleth and Tanith watched over the egg. First, though, she decided to hunt.

She spotted a parasaurolophus wandering around the valley wall, trying to find the entrance. The herbivore struggled to find it; meanwhile, Neith-Maia was slowly stalking it, licking her lips. She made sure not to let out a peep and mistakenly give away her position.

When she got close enough, she pounced on the swimmer and ripped off its neck cleanly. She watched some blood spill into the ground and tore off a piece of flesh, relishing the taste of warm meat, and finished her meal slowly. _Ha!_ _Let them worry._

She broke off a bone and sucked the delicious marrow from it before spilling some on the meat. Neith-Maia took a bite of the mixed meal and enjoyed her culinary experiment, breaking more bones and spilling the marrow onto the red meat. After she got a satisfactory meal, she decided to return to her egg.

She arrived to see Conleth and Tanith still asleep and the egg gone.

* * *

**Hey, guys, what do you think?**

**I am finally getting to the parts that I wanted to! Don't you hate it when you imagine a scene in your head and it takes FOREVER to get to that scene? It was like that for Zander's death and Lothair's forceful copulation with Neith-Maia. Tanith won't stick around for long...**


	17. Son

"Damn it!"

Conleth and Tanith woke up, standing up immediately. Conleth's eyes were still heavy and Tanith was blinking rapidly, somewhat in a state of panic. Neith-Maia huffed, annoyed by their aloofness, and stared at the place where the egg used to be. Conleth looked in the direction that Neith-Maia was and gasped.

"The egg!" he cried.

"Yeah, no _duh_, the egg!" Neith-Maia replied. "You two were supposed to watch it!"

"Don't get mad at _me!"_ Conleth responded. "We only took our eyes off of it for two damn minutes!"

"Well, obviously two minutes is enough for something to go wrong."

Tanith stepped forward, muttering something to herself. Neith-Maia rolled her eyes and growled at her.

"Hey!" Neith-Maia growled. "Speak up."

"I - I-I I think I saw something take it, but I don't know if it was ow-ow-our egg," she stammered.

Neith-Maia stomped her clawed foot. "What other _fucking_ egg is there?!"

Conleth eyed her with frustration. "Do you know what direction that little 'something' went?"

Tanith pointed her claw in the direction of the guarded valley, adding to Neith-Maia's frustration. Conleth looked where Tanith pointed and huffed with annoyance. Tanith gulped, fearing whatever punishment they could conceive.

"In the valley?!" Neith-Maia screamed. "Do you really think creatures like us have any way of getting in?! Once that egg hatches, the adults will kill it!"

Tanith started to cry. "I – I'm sorry."

Conleth started to walk away. "I'm going to try and find an entrance. That egg is the only child I have."

"Can I help–?"

"No!" both Conleth and Neith-Maia roared.

Conleth then growled at Tanith again. "Go away, Tanith! You just cause trouble! You can't even produce an egg!"

Neith-Maia, rather sick of Tanith, didn't bother to counter Conleth's command. When Conleth was out of earshot, Neith-Maia approached Tanith, her head close enough for a hushed whisper.

"Keeping that child alive was _your_ idea," Neith-Maia muttered. "I hope you're happy."

* * *

"Neith-Maia!" Conleth called from a distance. "I found an opening."

Neith-Maia followed closely behind him, seeing what he had discovered. She could have sworn that she passed by this area before, back when she hadn't yet lain the egg. Before, the pathway had been covered from several chipped rocks that were particularly difficult to climb over. She guessed that four-legged herbivores had had an easier time getting over.

_So _that_ was their safeguard. _

"Through this canyon," Conleth said.

She walked behind him, careful not to let his tail mistakenly hit her face. Neith-Maia hoped that the valley wasn't particularly large. Luckily, the smell of a Sharptooth would be easy to pick up, as the place was inhabited entirely by herbivores.

"Do you think it hatched yet?" Neith-Maia asked.

"Possibly," Conleth replied. "If not, I hope no one crushed it."

The canyon wasn't particularly long, so they got into the valley quickly. Neith-Maia and Conleth both roared in awe at what they saw.

There were large boulders that formed tall pillars close by the end of the canyon. In the distance was a great waterfall, which formed a river that flowed through the herbivores' paradise. There were trees of different sorts, some bearing ripe fruit, others growing ridiculously tall. The one thing that amazed her was the variety of species.

There were long-necks, three-horns, big-faces, flyers, spike-tails, dome-heads, and other, countless species living together, all in cooperation. She could see two long-necks nuzzling each other's heads, bathing in a pond. A single black three-horn was keeping watch on the other species. A large club-tail was sniffing the different plants before he found a preference for a particular shrub and ate it with gusto.

Conleth licked his lips. "Damn flyer crap! This could feed several of us carnivores for months!"

"Let's focus on our child!"

"Ahhh!" he roared. "Where could that egg be?!"

Neith-Maia let out a cry as well before she proceeded to follow him.

* * *

"I think I smell something!"

Conleth followed Neith-Maia to a volcano, thinking that it was a dumb move. Fearing that they could get burned horribly if any of the lava touched them, he kept watch to make sure that the volcano's liquid wouldn't ooze on them. He especially worried for the safety of Neith-Maia and their child.

They finally made it to a path between two cliffs. Neith-Maia watched as lava oozed off the edge of one and a knocked down tree fell to the ground. She saw a group of herbivore children with a little purple Sharptooth. _Her_ little purple Sharptooth.

Conleth and Neith-Maia instinctively lunged for the small prey animals, just missing them and mistakenly biting grass and rocks. They both spit it out with disgust and, as the herbivore children ran with their baby, Neith-Maia and Conleth jumped on their path, following them with determination.

The two T-Rexes followed the child-theives into a dense forest and Neith-Maia almost stepped on a yellow-orange Triceratops juvenile before a pink long-neck moved her out of the way. Annoyed at this near-miss, she relentlessly chased them, knocking down several trees inadvertently (she simply considered this collateral damage).

Somehow, they managed to lose the herbivore children and, in frustration, let out a roar. Neith-Maia started to get somewhat hungry and spied an aged long-neck near a large pool, licking her lips at the opportunity.

She knew she had to be strategic with this old male, for his age gave him experience, something she lacked due to her relative youth. Neith-Maia tried to toy with the male, but the male clearly wasn't having any of it, and the apatosaurus male swung his tail, nearly hitting her snout. She backed him into a pool and he managed to smack her snout with the tip of his tail. She shook her head to counter the pain and lunged at him.

He managed to smack her to the ground and she was thankful that the pool wasn't deep. The male stepped back, possibly toying with her, and she got up, pissed.

"Fuck this crap!" she roared as she lunged, head-butting his side, causing him to topple.

A flyer swooped down in her line of vision and, due to irritation, she felt determined to kill it. She could kill the long-neck later.

"Damn it!" she screamed.

She walked into the forest, following the flyer, wondering if this flyer would lead her to the purple baby of hers. Trying to bite it, her vision wasn't focused on the vine lying on the ground. This proved detrimental to her mission, as two juveniles pulled the vine, causing her to trip on her head.

Out from behind the vines were a single pink male apatosaurus and the baby she was so desperate to take home.

"Zander!" she screamed, later wondering how the hell she thought the baby would recognize the name he hadn't yet received.

The children ran away from her and the yellow triceratops called for them, leading them to a hole in a rock attached to the ground, and she roared in frustration, unable to access them.

Suddenly, a small object hit her head and she turned around, seeing a tiny swimmer and an equally small flyer in a tall fruit-tree, picking the hard-shelled fruits and using them as weapons. Neith-Maia heard the swimmer mutter something, which she interpreted as a taunt, and she walked up to the tree, spying them. She tried to jump for them twice when she felt a hard horn hit the bottom of her foot and when she turned around, she saw the annoying three-horn again.

"I'm going to kill you!"

She lunged to bite her and missed yet _again_.

Neith-Maia chased after it, hearing it scream, and she followed it around a cliff. She heard a rumbling noise come from above and a large boulder hit her head, causing her to fall to the ground just before it broke in two. As she hit the ground, she got a close look at the triceratops and wondered if the children keeping her baby were the ones that had killed Lothair.

She shook the boulder off of her head, that thought lost for a long time, and tried to find her mate.

Neith-Maia found him again, antagonizing a spike-tail, and the petulant swimmer jumped on his snout. Conleth roared in frustration, cursing the tiny swimmer with the high-pitched voice. She leaned in to bite the swimmer off, but the flyer took it away, causing her to mistakenly bite Conleth. When Neith-Maia realized what she did, she released her jaw.

"What the _fuck_, Neith-Maia?"

"I was trying to get that damn swimmer!"

"Well, you bit _me!"_

_"_Don't you think we have more important matters?"

They tried to prey on the small herbivore children when a triceratops, a paurasaurolophus, and two longnecks (one Neith-Maia had attacked earlier) came to their defense. One of the Flatteeth whipped her face with its tail and the three-horn knocked down Conleth. Two long-necks used their tails to trip Neith-Maia.

The herbivores cornered them and, feeling demoralized, the two T-Rexes ran away, hoping only now to find their child and leave the valley. Neith-Maia had it in her head that something in the plants made the Flatteeth both smarter and stronger.

"Our child's dead, isn't he?" Conleth asked.

Just then, Neith-Maia heard a baby growl and turned around, telling Conleth to do the same. She saw the baby with the pink long-neck and cursed uselessly.

"Damn long-neck!" she roared as Conleth pursued them, knocking down a tree.

The two juveniles ran across the log when the long-neck boy fell through, getting his leg stuck. The purple baby T-Rex went back for him when Neith-Maia and Conleth stopped right beside the log, watching the baby Sharptooth check on the long-neck and wondering if the baby was fit for raising.

"Speak, child!" Neith-Maia roared. "Please!"

Conleth begged the same and Neith-Maia saw the baby trying to communicate in the herbivore language. Neith-Maia cried and the baby spoke Flattooth again, but at this time, adding the typical carnivore roar at the end. Conleth and Neith-Maia nearly melted when they heard their little boy greet them as his mother and father.

"My Zander!" Neith-Maia whimpered and leaned in, licking her child out of affection.

Little Zander leaped onto her snout and she rubbed hers against Conleth's, both nearly crying out of joy. She purred sweetly to her child and Conleth did the same before they left, completely forgetting about the potential meal stuck in the log.

They made their way through the canyon, little Zander staying at the front, letting out a mix of attempts at herbivore words and little roars of his native language. Neith-Maia found it humorous, how her son, descended from a monster, reminded her of the brother she loved so dearly. She wished she could have the old Zander meet him. He would have been proud.

Zander heard the cry of an herbivore and let out a juvenile growl, climbing up a steep path onto the canyon's cliff. Neith-Maia and Conleth followed him on lower ground, watching as Zander raced to save his long-neck friend from an unknown threat.

Finally, the two adult Sharpteeth caught up, seeing their son being choked by a couple of struthiomimuses (Neith-Maia thought that these pathetic organisms stole her egg) and leaped up to bite them. The two egg-stealers fled, constantly chased by the two predators, and they made their way out of the canyon.

"I'm gonna fucking _devour_ those things!" Neith-Maia roared.

Conleth managed to catch one, snapping its neck, and Neith-Maia mirrored his action. Together, they shared a meal, filling their stomachs after such a tiring journey. Neith-Maia let out a laugh and licked Conleth's lips, cleaning off the blood.

"Neith-Maia," he purred, licking her neck playfully, making her chuckle.

"Wait," she paused. "Where's our little Zander?"

Neith-Maia got up and walked up that path in the canyon, seeing their baby walk towards them. Zander looked back mournfully, but Neith-Maia let out a reassuring purr, and Zander looked forward, trotting to his mother. Conleth smiled, purring alongside his wife, and Zander walked wobbly in their shadows.

"Come along, son."

Zander walked to the front and his parents followed the little purple male with the blood-red eyes. She had her son back.

She had a family again.

* * *

**Anyone remember the egg-nappers? **

**I was watching the movie while writing this because I wanted it to be accurate.**


	18. Feed

"He's odd looking, isn't he?"

Neith-Maia couldn't help but agree with Conleth's observation. It was extremely rare for a T-Rex to have purple scales, even more uncommon than a T-Rex with only one eye and albinism, like Tanith's sister, Epine. When Zander looked up at her, she noticed that the whites of his eyes were exposed, unlike most Sharpteeth. His tail was a bit short for his size and his snout was a little long. She couldn't help but think that he was going to grow up very deformed.

"He's still our son," Neith-Maia replied.

Zander heard her last word and let out a cute squeal, prompting a laugh from his mother. As they went far away from that strange valley, Zander saw a small beetle and raced to catch it. Zander kept making a _chomp_ sound with his jaw as he followed the beetle. Once he got it, he chewed it, making yellow goo stain his small teeth. The baby boy swallowed the meal and wove around his unusually long arms.

"You're a rather silly one, aren't you, son?" Conleth chuckled. His last word made Neith-Maia feel a pang of guilt.

Zander started to jump randomly, humoring his parents, and he started to chase Conleth's tail playfully. Every time Zander would open his mouth to bite it, Conleth swiftly pulled it away. Neith-Maia couldn't help but wonder where he got the tendency to bite tails from.

Neith-Maia put it in front of him and he started to chase after _that_ one, only for him to trip over it. He got up and started to jump playfully. Neith-Maia remembered when she first hatched; she had hopped in the same manner, wagging her stumpy tail in front of Zander, her older brother. Baby Zander rolled around on the ground for a bit, struggling with his little legs, but his strangely long arms helped him get up.

"He's a strange one," Conleth said. "But he'll be strong. I just know it."

* * *

They walked quite a distance away from that dangerous valley when Conleth saw a stray struthiomimus, choosing to hunt it. Zander watched as he killed it with ease, squirming at the sight of its head being ripped off. Conleth brought it back and ripped it apart, giving Zander a bit to eat.

"Come on, Zander," Conleth said. "Time to eat."

Zander reluctantly walked over to sniff it when he saw a large beetle flying above his head. His focus shifted to hunting the insect and Zander chased after it, his jaws repeatedly making the _chomp_ sound. He would jump in attempt to catch it.

Conleth raised an eyebrow. "What is _up_ with that boy?"

"Maybe he just likes to hunt for himself," Neith-Maia replied.

Zander leaped up off a rock and caught the beetle, chewing it with gusto and returning to his parents. Neith-Maia couldn't help but laugh at the goofy sight; a wing was stuck to her son's chin, an antennae was attached to one of his teeth, and goo was spilling all over his jaw. Zander swallowed the meal and Neith-Maia licked him affectionately, cleaning up the mess.

"Mama!"

"Neith-Maia," Conleth said. "Isn't that cute?"

"Neh-Ma!"

"Yes, Zander," she chuckled. "My name's Neith-Maia."

"Neh-Ma-Ah!"

Neith-Maia sat down and Zander leaned against her leg. His own legs stretched out and he decided to sleep next to her foot, much to her amusement. Conleth sat beside her, rubbing his head on her neck and licking her cheek. She sighed a bit, thinking of Tanith and how much she had wanted Conleth to give her a child. Neith-Maia wondered where she was now.

"Maaa-maa," Zander murmured before he went to sleep.

* * *

"It's about time you learn to hunt."

Neith-Maia agreed, but Zander was a bit reluctant. By the time he had started talking, Conleth decided it was time for him to learn how to catch his food. Still, Zander took a preference to bugs, which puzzled Neith-Maia. Once, she tried to eat bugs, but they tasted quite revolting to her, so she spat it out promptly.

"Do I have to?" Zander asked. "I'm already full."

"Look, kid," Conleth replied. "One day we can't take care of you anymore, so we need to teach you how to survive. One of the things you need to learn is how to hunt."

"And the other thing?"

"To defend yourself."

Zander's shoulders sunk and he acquiesced to his father's command. Conleth pointed to a small stegosaurus, whose spikes haven't yet developed, and Zander looked at it curiously. The little spike-tail was eating bits of shrubbery and Zander tried to greet it in its own language. The stegosaurus backed away, at first intimidated, but then curious. Zander seemed to be introducing him to his parents and Conleth huffed.

"Damn it, Zander!" Conleth complained. "I didn't bring it to you so you could make friends!"

Just then, Neith-Maia thought of a distant memory of she and her brothers hunting. The first Zander had told Neith-Maia about the responsibility of being a hunter, which Lothair had scoffed at, and she recalled one thing he had told her.

_There's always more flatteeth, Neith-Maia. You have to learn to accept your nature. You're made to enjoy the taste of blood._

_Damn him for being right._

"Funny how different he and his father are," she muttered to herself, quiet enough so Conleth couldn't hear her.

"Okay, Zander," Conleth muttered. "Now that you made it think you're its friend, you might as well use it to your advantage."

Zander sunk his head and approached the stegosaurus, murmuring something in its minuscule ear. The stegosaurus expressed some confusion before Zander bit down on its neck, making a loud _snap_ noise, and the spike-tail dropped to the ground. Zander looked at Conleth, who nodded, telling him to enjoy his meal. Instead, Zander sulked beside it, crying.

"What the hell did those Valley Flatteeth _do_ to him?" Conleth whispered to Neith-Maia.

If Zander heard them, he showed no sign of it.

* * *

"Are you going to hunt _now_?"

"No!"

Zander turned his back against Conleth, who was, to no avail, trying to get him to stalk a little pink long-neck. The blue-eyed little pink female immediately recognized the threat and ran away, relying on other long necks to defend her. Conleth let out a huff of frustration.

"Why can't you realize that they are not your friends?"

"They can be if you let me!"

"And just why would we do that?" Conleth huffed. "They wouldn't see you as their friend! They see you as a threat."

Zander grew angry and bit his tail, causing Conleth to growl angrily. He swung his tail just a bit, causing Zander to fall backward. He scurried to his feet and ran away, hiding behind a boulder with sharp edges.

"Why don't you go talk to him?" Conleth asked Neith-Maia. "All of my attempts proved futile."

Neith-Maia nodded, nuzzling his cheek before finding her son. She tried not to disturb him and when she saw him crying, she sat down and licked him in order to comfort him. He saw her and turned away.

"Zander," she murmured.

"Leave me alone."

"Please talk to me," she sighed. "I know you sympathize with Flatteeth."

"Daddy doesn't care!"

"Yes he does. He just doesn't understand it. He's never known someone like you."

Zander stood up defiantly. "And you _have?_"

"Yes," she said. "I had an older brother who also cared for Flatteeth. His name was Zander."

Zander looked up, wiping his tears. "But _my_ name is Zander."

Neith-Maia nuzzled him affectionately and he seemed to calm down a bit. Neith-Maia looked behind her to see Conleth pacing around, muttering about his own frustration, and looked away before they could make eye contact. She gazed back at Zander, who sat down beside her leg.

"My brother thought that being a hunter brought about certain responsibilities. He said that if we hunt too many, we diminish their population. If we hunt too few, they die of starvation. Hunt the weak and let the strong live so they bred and improve their species. Hunt quickly so as to decrease the amount of time they're in pain."

"But he still hunted."

"He acknowledged something not many of our kind have never done and never will do," Neith-Maia spoke. "That Flatteeth have feelings. He knew they had a language. He even tried to learn it."

"Did he ever teach you?"

"Very few words," she replied. "I could only detect individual names."

"Oh," Zander replied. "Well, maybe when Daddy is gone, hunting somewhere, I can teach you some Flattooth."

"I don't think Conleth would like that very much," Neith-Maia laughed.

Zander shrugged. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

_Oh, how right you are, my son._

* * *

**Anyone know who that young, pink, blue-eyed little female is?**

**In case any of you were wondering, I'm planning to write a sequel to this.**


	19. Island

"They called me Chomper."

Neith-Maia looked back to see if Conleth was overhearing their conversation. He was still pacing around, scaring off whatever small organism dared to cross his path, and Neith-Maia looked at Zander again. The little purple guy was looking at the ground, shuffling his feet, and Neith-Maia decided to make a deal.

"You liked being called Chomper, didn't you?"

Zander nodded.

"Okay," she chuckled, nuzzling him. "We'll make a deal. I'll convince your father that 'Chomper' is a nickname that I gave you, but you'll have to learn to hunt. Establish whatever moral code you want to abide by, but you're going to learn eventually."

"I don't like the thought of that," Zander sighed. "What if I killed that long neck's long-lost sister or something?"

Neith-Maia sighed. "That's none of your concern."

Zander stood up. "Yes it is! You're killing somebody's family."

"Here's the way most Sharpteeth see it: it's either a Flattooth's family or their own. They can't save both."

Zander sulked. "Okay, I'll guess I'll make the deal."

Neith-Maia looked over her shoulder.

"Good. Now stop sulking before your father worries."

* * *

"Chomper," Conleth muttered. "What a funny nickname."

"Well, he does _chomp_ a whole lot."

"It suits Zander," Conleth said. "And I don't know what you did, you managed to get him to hunt."

They both looked at Zander, who was trying to catch fish by putting his tail in the water and then dragging it out. Zander caught one and attempted to chase his own tail, finally biting the fish of, and he ate it with gusto. Neith-Maia thought of when she, older Zander, and Lothair had encountered dead fish in a dried up riverbank. Oh, how long ago that was!

"Even if it is only fish," Conleth added. "He's so goofy!"

Zander dropped the bones in his mouth. "I heard that, Daddy!"

"I know."

Zander stuck his tongue out, making Conleth laugh, and Zander proceeded to chase the adult's tail. Conleth pulled it away, much to Zander's frustration. Neith-Maia almost doubled over laughing.

"Chomper!" she laughed. "What is with you and biting tails?"

Zander shrugged. "A triceratops girl in the valley got mad at me for doing that."

Conleth made a confused, amused expression. "You hunted _then_ but not _now_? You confuse me, boy."

When Conleth walked ahead of them, Neith-Maia leaned down to her little boy and hushed her voice.

"What was her name?"

Zander looked up, deep in thought. "Uhh, I think you would translate it to something like 'Sara'. Flattooth and Sharptooth names are very different, you know."

Neith-Maia chuckled sarcastically. "I wouldn't have guessed."

"Theirs are shorter and simpler."

"Are you two talking about me?" Conleth teased, looking behind him.

Neith-Maia caught up to him and nuzzled his side. "Yes, sweetie, I was trying to convince him to bite your tail again."

"Oh, stop it!" Conleth laughed before he found some prey and decided to teach Zander again.

Neith-Maia nodded at Zander, reminding him of the deal, and he reluctantly followed his mentor.

* * *

"You think there's any Flatteeth there?"

Conleth pointed to a plant-filled island that was connected to the mainland by a bridge. Neith-Maia, having never encountered the ocean before, was amazed at the sight of vast water that seemed to have no end. Mnemosyne had told her stories about the ocean before; how it moved back and forth across the wet sand, how, sometimes, strange fish would jump out of the water, showing their glimmering scales for a few seconds before retreating to the water again. Neith-Maia only believed her mother's stories now._  
_

"Mommy!" Zander shouted. "Look how much _water_ there is!"

"I'm just as amazed as you are, little Chomper."

"Is _anyone_ concerned by the fact that there are possibly Flatteeth at the end of the land-bridge?" Conleth asked._  
_

Neith-Maia and Zander followed Conleth across the land-bridge. The bridge was a little thin, but Conleth scoffed at the idea of such a problem being particularly bothersome for a Sharptooth.

"Sharpteeth are agile creatures," he chuckled. "Why would such a thing be any worry?"

Now, had they been Flatteeth, the trip across would have felt like forever. However, they made it across relatively quickly. They encountered a cliff at the end and Neith-Maia propped Zander up so he could walk on the rich land. After that, Neith-Maia jumped as best as she could, almost slipping off the cliff, and finally steadied herself on the land. As much as Conleth didn't want to admit it, he had the same struggle as well.

"See?" he shook his head. "Easy."

* * *

"Go, little Chomper boy," Neith-Maia cooed. "Go explore."

Zander eagerly ran around the place, putting his nose in every bush to see if there was something hidden in it. Conleth raised an eyebrow, but Neith-Maia simply shrugged, and went to explore the island.

She saw shrubbery that she hadn't even seen in that valley where she found her son. The trees came in varying heights and different plants featured berries with strong smells that repulsed Neith-Maia somewhat. She sniffed the trees, wondering what Flattooth would eat the leaves on them, and waited for one to arrive.

"Hey, you," Conleth said affectionately. "Whatchya waiting for?"

"I want to see what Flattooth will eat those strange leaves."

"What do you care about their diet?" Conleth asked. "As long as they come to us, what does it matter?"

Neith-Maia laughed. "So I know what plants to wait beside, idiot."

Conleth gave her a funny look. "Now I know how Zander turned out so weird."

_No, you don't. You couldn't possibly imagine. You couldn't possibly guess why Zander is deformed._

"Oh, shut up."

* * *

"I'm getting off the island to get some food," Conleth said. "Last thing I need to do is snap and eat somebody."

"He already has," Zander huffed to himself. "I have, too."

Luckily, Conleth didn't hear the boy's musings, so he slid off the cliff in the distance and proceeded across the land bridge. Neith-Maia watched him disappear into the horizon, Zander beside her, and eagerly waited until he was gone. Once she was sure that he was off the land bridge and on the mainland, she walked away with Zander, deep into the tall woods.

"So, Chomper, you said you know some Flattooth?" Neith-Maia asked.

"A little bit," Zander replied. "I remember the names of the herbivore kids that watched me hatch."

"And what did they do when you hatched?" Neith-Maia asked, saddened by the fact that she wasn't there when it happened.

"They ran. They were scared of me," Zander answered. "But this long-neck male – his name translated into something like 'Small Foot' – tried to get me to eat what he called 'green food'."

"How do you say 'green food'?"

Zander stopped and let out a strange, unnatural grunt. Neith-Maia could barely tell where one word ended and the other began and thought that Zander must have spoken with an accent when he attempted their language. Neith-Maia couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny?" he asked innocently.

"Just the whole situation. It... it sounds absurd," she explained. "This Small-Foot boy must be considered a heretic among Flatteeth."

"What's a heretic?"

"It's someone who holds beliefs that differ greatly from what is typically accepted."

"Oh," Zander paused. "Then you and I are heretic Sharpteeth. That and the other Zander you told me about."

Neith-Maia looked up at the sky, almost seeing the shape of her loving brother in the clouds looking down at his no-longer-little sister and her son. Little Zander leaned against her leg and looked up at the puffy shape just in time for it to disappear. Zander shifted his attention to his mother's tail.

"Bite my tail and I'm eating yours," she teased.

Zander shifted away.

* * *

"So," Conleth said, ripping the meal apart for the three of them. "I saw a Plated carnivore on the mainland."

"Really?" Neith-Maia asked, despite being uninterested.

"He pointed out some prey to me. I think his name was Heru or something."

"What was he like, Daddy?" Zander asked.

Conleth shrugged, swallowing a piece of a struthiomimus. "I don't really know. He just pointed out this thing and then left. To where, I don't know."

Zander got up and made a full circle. For once, it was not because he wanted to chase his tail. Neith-Maia raised an eyebrow at her little boy and Zander stopped, tapping his feet with boredom.

"I wish there was someone my age," Zander complained. "That's one thing Flatteeth are lucky for having."

Neith-Maia and Conleth looked at each other before the adult female addressed the issue.

"Why don't you explore the island a little more?" Neith-Maia suggested. "Maybe we'll play hide and seek or something."

Zander smiled and trotted off, his long arms dangling at his sides. His little tail wagged when he ran, just like Neith-Maia's when she was younger, and the older female couldn't help but laugh. Conleth started to chuckle as well.

"Well," he said mischievously. "Now that we're alone..."

Neith-Maia gulped, worrying at what he was implying and what exactly it was that he wanted. She shuddered at the thought of mating again and tried to direct his attention elsewhere, hoping that he wouldn't be annoyed by it.

"I was serious when I told Zander about hide and seek," Neith-Maia said. "You can imagine–"

Just like that, the earth started shaking.

* * *

**I want to rename this story, as I am just TIRED of the name Siblings. I want to change it because, at this point, both of Neith-Maia's siblings are dead, so the name no longer applies. Any suggestions?**


	20. Boy

"Zander!" Neith-Maia roared. "Where are you?"

Conleth took in a deep breath and pointed somewhere across a deep divide where a river ran. Neith-Maia saw an uprooted tree connecting the two cliffs and suspected that Zander must have crossed it. Neith-Maia was glad that the earthquake had died down, but that didn't guarantee her little boy's safety. Conleth, seeming equally concerned, looked at Neith-Maia with worry.

"I hope he's okay," Conleth muttered. "He doesn't exactly have the best survival skills."

"Only one way to find out," Neith-Maia replied, jumping over the divide and Conleth following suit.

They stumbled a bit when they landed, but they simply pretended such a mistake didn't happen, and continued to track his scent. At first, the scent of the strange fauna was somewhat distracting, but Neith-Maia was able to get back on track. Conleth followed suit.

They made their way to a clearing in the little forest and Neith-Maia sulked a bit before she heard a juvenile, high-pitched roar emitting from some large-leaf bushes. Zander struggled to make his way out of it, a branch getting stuck on his foot, and the purple little boy hopped awkwardly to get it off. Neith-Maia and Conleth breathed a sigh of relief as Zander reunited with them.

"That earthquake really scared me," Zander sighed. "I'm too tired to do anything else now."

Zander picked a spot in the clearing and started to nap, using a bunch of large leaves as a sort of softened head rest. Conleth and Neith-Maia looked at each other and at Zander again, gazing at him lovingly.

"Remind me not to suggest hide-and-seek again," Neith-Maia chuckled before falling asleep beside her son.

* * *

"Are you going to hunt your own lunch, little Chomper?" Neith-Maia asked.

"Yup," Zander replied. "I want to try to do it alone."

"Okay," Conleth said, glad that he, for once, was taking his advice. "Go, boy."

Zander ran off, making his juvenile growl that had charmed his mother so much. Neith-Maia took to soothing her own hunger, seeing an insect and finally remembering a period in her life when she had to survive off of these. Now she understood where Zander got that from. _What a funny thing_, she thought to herself as she watched a carnivorous flyer circle around an area, finding something to eat. The flyer ventured a little too close to the female predator and she only had to use her tongue to kill the thing. _How pathetic._

"Let's go find something," Conleth hummed. "In case our Chomper boy can't find anything bloody."

The two adults looked around on the island and saw a strange amphibian which Conleth told her was a Koolasuchus. Neith-Maia lunged for it, catching it before it could retreat into the water, and brought it back to the clearing.

Conleth and Neith-Maia ate with gusto, breaking up bones and eating the marrow as well. Neith-Maia almost choked on something and accidentally coughed, getting some amphibian blood on Conleth's chin. He started to break out into laughter and spit some of the blood from his meal onto her face, causing her to stick out her red tongue.

After they finished their meal, they realized that much time had passed and they still needed to look for little Zander. Neith-Maia was the first to get up, roaring his name, and Conleth followed suit. Their roars must have been heard throughout the entire island, for the trees even shook from the mere vibration. Neith-Maia and Conleth returned to the clearing and saw Zander trotting up to them before he ran back to some bush (Neith-Maia couldn't pinpoint why).

Conleth, who was now ahead of Neith-Maia, knocked down a tree and found Zander. Neith-Maia overheard him saying classic Conleth-like things.

"Well, did you manage to hunt anything?"

Neith-Maia arrived shortly before Zander could answer.

"There you are, boy!" Neith-Maia added.

Conleth responded in a different manner. "You better have hunted something; I don't spend time teaching you so it could go to waste."

Zander's smile disappeared. "Well, no, sorry."

"You had us worried sick, Chomper!" Conleth replied, adding another remark in hopes of getting Zander to hunt for once. "Come to dinner."

Zander looked behind him. "Can I bring some friends with me?"

Neith-Maia worried that Zander had mistakenly befriended a Flattooth. She and Conleth turned to each other and the adult male thought it was the best time to make one of his obnoxious jokes.

"Sure, we could use some dessert!"

_Wrong thing to say to Zander!_

The couple was about to leave when Conleth picked up a scent of a Flattooth. Neith-Maia took in a whiff of air and detected what he was smelling.

"Hey, what's that?" Conleth asked, moving toward the bush. "Smells like... Long-Neck!"

Before Conleth took sniff anything in that bush, Zander moved toward him, letting out a juvenile roar to distract him.

"That was me!" Zander stammered. "I, uh, I burped! I had Long Neck for breakfast!"

_That was Lothair's favorite..._

"Come along now, son," Conleth said as the couple of adult T-Rexes left the clearing.

"Be there in a minute," called Zander, though Neith-Maia knew he was lying; Zander liked to spend way too much time exploring for his own good.

* * *

"Ah, damn it!"

Neith-Maia laughed at Conleth's clumsiness. He quickly severed the vine with his feet claws and reorientated himself. Neith-Maia leaned her head on a tall tree, not putting her full weight on it, and watched him lift his head up high as if it never happened.

"Someone tripped, someone tripped," she whispered to herself, taunting Conleth.

"Neith-Maia," he said, giving her a look. "Don't even..."

"Okay, okay," she replied. "Let's check on Zander now."

They proceeded a few paces before Conleth spied on Zander dragging a leaf around, collecting berries and other sorts of vegetation, happily skipping about as he did so. He shook his head in a way that mildly humored Neith-Maia and looked back at her, wondering what the hell Zander was doing.

"Sometimes I worry about that boy."

"I'll watch over him," Neith-Maia said. "You go relax."

* * *

Neith-Maia paced around, looking for Zander when she found him next to a pink Long Neck. She let out a roar and the Flattooth boy let out a scream, jumping behind Zander and cowered near a single plant.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh, hunting, like you and Daddy said."

Neith-Maia nodded in approval and kneeled down to nuzzle Zander lovingly, purring while she gave him some advice.

"Don't play with your food, boy," she joked before leaving, grunting that he should come home.

Some time later, she heard a foreign roar.

* * *

**So I officially decided on Teeth of a Huntress as a title. **

**For some reason, I decided to make a really complicated family tree. I had to redo it several times and that was BEFORE I made changes to the family relations!**

**Who here likes coming up with names?**


	21. Saved

Neith-Maia decided to warn Conleth and when she finally found him, he warned her about the same thing.

"I recognize that roar," Conleth said. "That was Heru from yesterday!"

_"I'm going to kill you!"_ they heard. "_AH! WHO BIT MY TAIL?!"_

"Bite tails..." Neith-Maia realized. "Zander!"

_"What the fuck, my foot! I'm gonna kill you, little biter!"_

"Let's go NOW!" Conleth said, running ahead of Neith-Maia.

They located the source of the taunting roars and found the Giganotosaurus, plated back and all. Finally, they arrived at a cliff that overlooked the mainland and saw Heru cornering Zander and a motley of herbivore children. They both approached him slowly and Conleth, deciding that Heru was not to be trusted, decided to go on the offensive first.

Conleth slowly approached Heru when the Plated Sharptooth used his head to butt into Conleth's chin a couple of times. Conleth stumbled a bit before he decided to bite into Heru's chest, prompting Heru to scratch his face with his claw. Conleth, in the midst of distraction, allowed Heru to knock him over with one push with his head.

Neith-Maia, angered, approached her opponent, first circling him to size him up and determine his strengths and weaknesses. Her delay proved to be a huge mistake, as Heru used his foot claws to make a deep gash in her thigh. Neith-Maia, distracted and demoralized, didn't even defend herself against a hard tail whip from her opponent. Instead, she was nearly hurled across. Almost unwilling to get up, she let matters go into others' hands.

Zander let out what seemed like a threat in Flattooth Language and Heru almost finished her off when Conleth delivered a tail whip that sent Heru over the edge, _literally_.

Neith-Maia heard Zander let out a Flattooth cry for help and got up, fretting about her only living child.

"Zander!"

She walked to the edge, watching her son struggle to swim, and Heru popped out of the water, bobbing like a log.

"You better not hurt my son, damn it!"

Just then, the Long Neck boy jumped into the water, almost taking Zander down under, and Heru lunged for them. Neith-Maia waited in anticipation, not letting out a breath until Zander and the Long Neck boy appeared again, swimming towards the water without a current. The two struggled as a fin appeared, circling around them, and Zander shouted something to the Long Neck boy that, for once, Neith-Maia was able to translate.

"Little-Foot, I'm scared."

Zander crawled on the head of "Little-Foot" just before an aquatic creature helped them rise out of the water. Neith-Maia studied it, seeing that it was predominately shades of green and that it had a long neck, similar to that of Little-Foot. Neith-Maia realized it was an Elasmosaurus.

The Elasmosaurus rose its head to the edge of the cliff and the herbivore children started cheering and embracing each other. One Triceratops girl, whom she thought she recognized, but dismissed the notion, mistakenly hugged her foot. Neith-Maia looked down and smiled, also infected by their mirth. The Triceratops girl seemed relatively comfortable with her.

They all walked to the place where the Elasmosaurus let Zander and Little-Foot climb off, letting them back onto the island cliff. Little-Foot went to embrace his companions and Zander crawled to Neith-Maia's short arms, allowing himself to be lifted. Neith-Maia nuzzled her son, purring with glee due to the fact that he had survived that horrible encounter. Conleth, too, let out a roar of joy and gratitude.

Neith-Maia looked at the Long Neck boy and suddenly, a memory struck her. This was the same young male, and these were the same young companions of his, that had devised the plan to kill Lothair. The fearless herbivore children did away with one Sharptooth and their leader, the pink Long Neck, had risked his life to save another. The resemblance of this young male to the female Long Neck she had mourned quite some time ago hit her like a swift tail whip to the face. Bravery had been passed from mother to son.

Neith-Maia looked at her own child, the son of two siblings that despised one another. His deformed appearance, his gentle nature and his curiosity for Flatteeth sharply contrasted the characteristics of both his biological and his adoptive fathers. Descended from a psychopath, he was born a loving soul. Something had flipped a switch in the process.

For a short moment, she wondered if the essence, the soul, of the late Zander had decided to reincarnate himself into her son. Was this Long Neck boy the Flattooth Counterpart? How could a boy whose mother was brutally murdered by a T-Rex come to accept a member of the aforementioned species? She had decided right then that her little Zander and the brave Long Neck boy were destined to be brothers, if not by blood.

"Chomper," she whispered. "Tell them that they're safe with us."

"What?" Conleth asked before Neith-Maia nodded.

Zander turned to the Flattooth children and translated her message. She watched Conleth lean down and take a sniff of a mute stegosaurus male, prompting the other herbivore juveniles to take a step back from his threatening snout. Slowly, Conleth rose back up and found it necessary to make a morbid joke.

"Anything that smells like that couldn't taste very good anyway!"

Neith-Maia watched Zander communicate to the Long Neck boy again and let him down. She leaned toward the boy, nuzzling him and purring in gratitude. The Little-Foot boy muttered something in Flattooth, which she couldn't translate, but accepted nonetheless.

Zander approached Little-Foot and hugged him, saying his farewells, and the herbivore children mounted the head of the Elasmosaurus. They exchanged a few grunts and the two adult T-Rexes simply waved their goodbyes.

Neith-Maia walked away from the cliff, going slowly, as her wound still needed to heal. Zander caught up to her and Conleth stayed by her side, tending to her as she walked. Whenever he would mistakenly go ahead of her, he would pause and wait for her to catch up before proceeding again. They headed toward that clearing and decided it was time to relax. Of course, Conleth had to make an obnoxious comment.

"Am I the only one that's still damned hungry?"


	22. Off

"When will the Land Bridge return?" Zander asked, looking out at the blue ocean.

"In a couple of hours," Neith-Maia replied. "Conleth has been asking me the same question."

"For good reason!" Conleth said impatiently. "I'm hungry and there's no food here anymore."

"You can wait a couple of hours, Conleth."

"And then all of the Flatteeth will be gone."

"Or alternatively," Neith-Maia said, cocking her head to the side. "More could travel this way just in time for an ambush."

Zander walked away from the cliff's edge, following a single dragonfly, and jumping in order to catch it. His mouth made that classic _chomp_ sound, which had earned him his Flattooth name, and white liquid spilled from his jaw. She only faintly remembered when she had had to survive on those and on abandoned eggs. Neith-Maia couldn't remember what they had tasted like. When she looked at the crushed mess Zander had just swallowed, she thought that it was better she didn't remember.

"Zander just might learn something from this hypothetical ambush," Conleth said, loud enough for Zander to hear it.

Zander sat down beside a rock and decided to nap before they had to get off the island. Neith-Maia sat down beside him, wondering what had happened to that Plated Sharptooth named Heru. She remembered that after the Long Neck boy, curiously named Little-Foot, saved Zander from drowning, Heru had been swept away by the strong current. She could safely assume that he had drowned.

* * *

_Lancelot had playfully licked her neck, causing her to involuntarily purr and smile. Chryseis had been playfully leaping around, successfully killing a single Flattooth much larger than her. Lancelot praised her for her strength and Chryseis let out a cute laugh, her teeth stained with her prey's blood. They huddled together before she felt them disappear from her. She let out an angry roar when she saw a single female Long Neck with her pink son. That female, too, disappeared. The pink Long Neck boy shivered in fear and when Neith-Maia was just about to lunge for it, it turned into Zander._

"Mommy?" Zander asked. "Are you okay?"

She nodded halfheartedly and saw that the Land Bridge had returned. Conleth was already on it and Neith-Maia jumped down as well. Zander waited at the edge and Neith-Maia let him climb onto her snout. She kneeled down so he could walk on the path and they caught up to Conleth. Zander looked back, saying goodbye to the island, and walked forward.

"You liked that place, didn't you?" Neith-Maia asked.

Zander nodded and looked ahead.

"You up for a little hunting lesson?" Conleth asked.

Zander started to look at the calmer water around them. It wasn't clear enough to see what was beneath it, but it partially reflected what was to be seen in the sky. Neith-Maia could see reflections of small, puffy clouds and of the sun. She wondered if Zander saw more and continued walking.

"I guess so," Zander replied. "So long as we don't hunt any of my friends."

"So long as you don't make any more of those friends," Conleth replied.

* * *

"Well, that was a short walk off!"

Neith-Maia and Zander looked at each other, disagreeing with Conleth's statement. They both looked back at the distant island and noticed that the land path was starting to disappear again. Only part of it was still above water.

Conleth turned around to see them staring at it. "What, did you forget something?"

"Oh, shut up," Neith-Maia replied.

Neith-Maia let Zander ride on her snout when Conleth turned around and huffed. "He's not a baby, Neith-Maia. Let him walk."

"He's tired," she replied. "He may not be a baby but he's still a child."

"Us carnivores don't stay children for very long, Neith-Maia," Conleth responded. "You know that well."

"Who's to say that you, Conleth, have the right to shorten it artificially?"

"Please stop arguing," Zander groaned.

"You heard the kid," Conleth said, smug because he had the last word.

_I'm starting to _wonder_ about staying with Conleth_, Neith-Maia thought to herself. _This isn't good for Zander._ Conleth stopped for a second, turned back, and nuzzled Neith-Maia's side gently.

"I'm sorry, love."

Neith-Maia clenched her concealed teeth, hating him for making her feel any guilt at all. If Conleth ever asked her if she loved him, she wasn't sure she would be able to answer. _Yes you can, Neith-Maia. You can lie. Just lie by opening your legs like you did last time._

_What if I produce another child by doing that? I don't want a child from _him_._

Neith-Maia let Zander walk again and they spotted a family of Corythosauruses. Zander watched them with curiosity, observing the child in particular. He muttered something about wondering what the little female's name was when Conleth licked his lips and turned to Zander.

"Now, you are going to learn how to ambush, Zander," Conleth said.

_Good thing he didn't hear Zander's musings._

"Ambushes you have to time just right, my boy," he explained. "You let them come to you if you hide in the right place. They'll never know you're coming until it's too late."

Zander gulped and looked at Neith-Maia, who nodded, reminding them of their deal. He reluctantly followed his father and Neith-Maia followed right behind, wanting to see how this would result. She hoped things wouldn't go too badly, considering Zander's nature.

Conleth hid behind something, Neith-Maia following suit in a different location when the family fell into the trap. Neith-Maia could pick up words like "Cory" and "Ryth" (which she assumed were names) and heard words such as "green food". She heard the little one speak and her mother addressed her as "Thosa". Neith-Maia wondered how Flattooth names worked when Zander ran right into them, barking a warning of some sort in Flattooth language, and the family panicked.

"Damn it, Zander!" Conleth roared before he let his chance to hunt slip.

To repair the damage, Neith-Maia helped Conleth kill those named Cory and Ryth, trying not to pay attention to Zander, who was trying to hide Thosa. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Thosa managed to escape. Zander sat against what Conleth was hiding behind previously while Cory and Ryth died. Conleth dragged Ryth and Neith-Maia dragged Cory to Zander. The purple little boy looked at the dead little things and sulked.

"Damn it, it's bad enough that you ruined the ambush, now you won't eat?" Conleth roared. "Why would you try to play with your food anyway? That thing is not your friend!"

"I couldn't kill her..."

"IT, Zander. IT!"

_No, no... _Neith-Maia thought. _Now I'm seeing Lothair._

"Her." Neith-Maia interjected. "And she wasn't his friend. She just wasn't his enemy."

Conleth stood up. "Okay, fine. _Her._ What difference does it make to me what genitals the thing had?"

Neith-Maia huffed. "Never mind this issue. I'm eating."

Conleth did the same and when he noticed that Zander decided to eat a worm instead, he let out a snarl.

"Zander! I don't continue hunting despite the ruined ambush just for you to eat _that_."

"I'm going to sleep, Daddy."

* * *

"What is _wrong_ with that son of ours?"

_You mean that son of _mine. "He was hatched by a bunch of Herbivores. What do you expect?"

"How did he even learn how to growl like them?" he asked. "He spent only a day!"

"He learned our language even more quickly," Neith-Maia said. "He's unusually intelligent, even for a Sharptooth."

"If only he'd apply it to hunting," Conleth grumbled. "That child's not going to survive."

Neith-Maia tried to soothe her mate. "He will. With a brain like his, he'll learn quickly."

"I'd just wish he'd give up trying to befriend them."

"He'll learn soon enough, just trust me."

* * *

**Hello!**

**I don't know if I have asked this before, but who do you imagine voicing...**

**...Neith-Maia?**

**...Conleth?**

**...Lothair?**


	23. Ruby

Neith-Maia watched Conleth disappear into the distance with Zander, hoping that Conleth wouldn't get too angry at him. She thought about the possibility that Conleth would kill Zander if the boy didn't cooperate enough, but dismissed the idea. Conleth wasn't like Lothair, despite resembling him a bit (she remembered mistaking the two on the basis that their dark green scales and red eyes had looked so similar). Still, she remembered Tanith's warning.

_If you lay it and Conleth knows it's not his, he'll crush it. _

She started to wonder if Conleth would still kill Zander upon learning that the boy wasn't his. The deformities must have already made Conleth suspicious. Neith-Maia knew they were startlingly rare; she'd heard that the purple skin was so rare that one would suspect that the individual's parents were siblings. How Conleth had never come across this old story was beyond Neith-Maia.

She didn't want to wander too far, as she wanted Conleth and Zander to be able to find her when they returned from the hunt. Still, she decided to pace around until she was bored of that and sat down to rest, staring at the horizon. She would squint her eyes to watch the rays of the sun blur, obscuring everything it shone on. She would open her eyes too widely to see a similar effect as well. Neith-Maia switched between the two, finding it entertaining for only some time, and eventually stopped.

Neith-Maia heard multiple footsteps behind her and stood up to see Duncan and two adolescent velociraptors, one green and one blue. She saw that the scar she gave him as a child had not disappeared. Instead, it stretched and grew, staining one of his claws. Duncan was a little taller than when she last saw him, his muscles were fuller and his teeth became a little duller. There was still the same hatred she could see in his eyes and it struck her as odd that his mother had forgiven her for the deed that Duncan still held a grudge for.

"Hello again," Duncan said. "Remember me?"

"Sometimes I wish I didn't," she replied. "However, I've had a far stronger and far worse brother before you. His insanity got him killed, as well as his tendency to hold grudges."

Neith-Maia made up that last part, as she didn't know for sure.

"Oh, really," he scoffed. "Who killed him?"

"A pack of Flattooth children," Neith-Maia answered. "They come from a rather dangerous valley. Don't pursue them – I warn you – something in the food makes them stronger and smarter."

"Uh-huh, sure. What was your business there if it was so dangerous?"

"To save my son," Neith-Maia replied.

She instantly regretted it, as he now knew she had a child after Chryseis. Neith-Maia could still remember Chryseis running to her with a chunk ripped from her back and learning that it was Duncan's doing. Neith-Maia's attention turned to the two adolescent Fast Biters, who were inspecting her. The blue one was on her left, sniffing and nodding.

"Thorgeir," said the blue one. "What do ya think of this one?"

"Mmmm, I don't know, Seasnan. Why?"

"Step back," said Duncan. "We'll appraise this one later."

They were about to walk away when Duncan turned around and stepped close to Neith-Maia, intimidating her. However, she did not dare step back.

"Neith-Maia," he whispered. "I'd better watch out for your son if I were you. Grudge holding may have killed your older brother, but it has never harmed me."

* * *

Neith-Maia, Conleth and Zander had walked some distance when they found a refreshing stream of water provide a bounty of fish. Neith-Maia watched Zander bob his head in, catching a few, and she looked ahead where the river ran. Conleth wondered what Neith-Maia was staring at and decided to check it out, later seeing five oviraptors bathing in a pond. Neith-Maia and Zander inspected the group of five, realizing that it was a family.

Neith-Maia heard the two oviraptors talking to each other and realized that she could understand more than just names. She gleaned that the pink female, Garnet, and the blue male, Onyx, were the parents of three children. The eldest was named Ruby and her little sister was named Jade. She listened closely for the name of the little boy when Zander had gone up to them, introducing himself as "Chomper". Neith-Maia heard that the boy's name was Sphene.

"Is he seriously trying to befriend Flatteeth?"

"Conleth, I recognize these creatures. They're omnivores."

"Ehh, I don't know."

Jade and Sphene seemed calmer around Zander, making Conleth roll his eyes. Neith-Maia turned to Conleth with a sarcastic expression.

"If you don't want to watch this, why don't you go hunting or something?"

Conleth huffed and left, making the ground rumble under his feet, and Neith-Maia went back to observing their interactions. Ruby approached Zander slowly and her hand touched the edge of his snout. He sniffed her hand a bit, unaccustomed to the scent of an oviraptor, and looked around. He dipped his feet in the water, but remained skittish, as his previous experiences with deep water haven't been the best. Ruby seemed pretty understanding.

"That," Ruby asked, pointing to Neith-Maia. "Your mommy?"

"Yes, I his mother," she responded in her Broken Flattooth.

"You both can speak!" Garnet pointed out. "Her, not as much."

"She learned later," Zander explained. "I learned when I hatched."

Ruby scratched her head in confusion, as did Jade and Sphene. However, the two younger siblings soon lost interest and started playing a game with skipping rocks. Garnet and Onyx looked straight up at Neith-Maia, asking her name.

"Neith-Maia," she struggled, trying her best to translate it.

"How did you learn, Chomper?" Ruby asked.

"I was hatched by Flatteeth," he said, prompting the two kids to have a separate conversation.

Neith-Maia sat down by the pond's edge and Garnet and Onyx approached her slowly. Neith-Maia cracked her neck, which unnerved the adult oviraptors, but they soon settled down. Onyx was the first to speak.

"How did he learn to speak?"

"I laid egg outside valley with much food for much different Flattooth kinds. Flattooth kids took egg in valley. Chomper hatched there and Conleth and me go into valley to find him," Neith-Maia struggled, unaccustomed to speaking the other language. "The Flattooth stronger and smarter in valley. I think it because of food in valley."

Garnet replied. "You mean they coexist–"

"What?" Neith-Maia asked, unable to remember the translation for that last word.

"They live together in peace?"

"Yes."

"They don't do that here, in the Mysterious Beyond."

Neith-Maia cocked her head. "The _what_?"

"Never mind," Onyx continued. "Flatteeth don't do that here. I wish they would. If we knew how, it would save us from Red Claw."

_Red Claw, Red Claw... Duncan!_

Garnet spoke. "If we could send Ruby, we would."

Neith-Maia thought about the idea of sending Ruby there and knew that Zander knew the way. She thought about sending them both to that valley, Zander for his own protection against Red Claw and Ruby for... well, whatever reasons Garnet and Onyx had. She made a decision (and a rather impulsive one, in retrospect).

"Chomper know the way to valley," Neith-Maia said, again struggling with their language. "He can help Ruby get there. Look after him for little time. I know Conleth no happy about this. I need do this."

Garnet and Onyx immediately agreed and Neith-Maia instructed the oviraptors to hide with "Chomper". She turned and walked away, hoping that Conleth wouldn't be particularly angry with her for giving up Zander to the omnivores. She looked back, crying a little bit, and sighed.

At least he would be safe from Red Claw.


	24. Death

"What the fuck do you mean you just gave him away?!"

"Exactly what I meant, Conleth!" she replied. "Knowing his nature, you'd get so sick of it and kill him!"

"Why would I try to kill our son?"

"My son," she let slip in a whisper.

Conleth stepped forward. "What was that?"

Neith-Maia turned away. "Nothing."

_Why did I say that?!_

"No, you said something, there's no taking it back, Neith-Maia," Conleth barked. "Now, I'll ask again. What did you say?"

Neith-Maia posed herself, thinking that she was now glad that she led Conleth far away from Zander and the group of oviraptors. She took a slightly deep breath before answering.

"I said he was _my _son."

"As oppose to _ours?_"

Neith-Maia nodded. Conleth raised his eyebrows in shock and then shook his head in anger. Neith-Maia feared his response.

"You mean you lied to me? This entire time, you let me think that he was my son?! Why?!"

Neith-Maia had no answer. Instead, she just walked away.

* * *

"You can't ignore me forever," Conleth muttered.

Neith-Maia had her back turned to him and looked at the distant stars, wondering how far they were, as no matter how far she walked, she couldn't reach them. She thought about how far they were and the stories Mnemosyne would tell her about them in her early childhood. Mnemosyne would say that they were the eyes of the deceased, watching their relatives. Zander would marvel in the stories as well, telling Neith-Maia that, when he died, he would watch over her. She scanned the night sky, wondering which pair of stars had taken the role of Zander's eyes. Neith-Maia thought about Zander's star eyes watching her, seeing her live a life of pain and renewal, and as of now, a life of lies.

"I want the truth, Neith-Maia," he continued. "Why?"

Neith-Maia turned around, still crying, and Conleth's hard gaze softened at the sight of her tears. Still, he tried to pretend that her tears didn't affect him. Neith-Maia saw that it didn't work.

"If I laid the egg and you weren't the father, you would have crushed it."

His head jerked back in shock. "Who gave you _that _idea? Did you think I was just like every other male? I cared about you, Neith-Maia! I love you!"

"Tanith gave me the idea. I originally didn't even want the egg. She told me it deserved to live and that was how I was going to achieve it," Neith-Maia replied, trying to be more callous despite Conleth's last words. "I didn't want to lie. I'm tired of lying. I can't do this anymore."

"Of course," he rolled his eyes. "Tanith."

"And you wonder why he is deformed," Neith-Maia muttered, sniffling.

"Who's the real father, then?" he asked, ignoring her previous comment.

"Lothair."

"Your brother?"

"Why do think I didn't want the egg?"

Conleth scooted closer to her. "He forced you, didn't he?"

Neith-Maia nodded and Conleth looked down in pity. There was a pause and, if not for the occasional crawling of a single insect, there would have been absolute silence. Finally, he turned to her.

"All this time I wanted to love you, ever since our first time," he lamented. "Did you ever love me? Not even in _that_ way, but at all?"

"I see you as a friend, Conleth. One I had to be careful around, but a friend nonetheless."

"I just wanted to know," he sighed and turned away.

* * *

They had talked less ever since. Occasionally, Conleth would mutter something about wishing he had a child, but he would try to keep it in a hushed voice. Neith-Maia felt awful for lying to him about her son, but also felt a great weight lifted off her shoulders. It was better that he knew the truth now.

She would think about how Zander was faring with Ruby and her family. Jade and Sphene had taken a liking to him immediately and she wondered if they would miss him when he left. Now doubt would they miss Ruby when she would leave with Zander.

Neith-Maia wondered if Zander would miss his mother. Hopefully he would, but she hoped that the loss wouldn't be too difficult for him. She didn't want him to have the horrible childhood she did.

At last, she thought about that Great Valley. If the herbivores had accepted him as a hatchling, they would surely accept him now, as he spoke their language and sympathized with them. She realized now that he can't stay there forever, but at least he would be protected for a little while. Until then, he was safe with those Herbivore Children that had managed to take down her awful brother.

Tonight, Conleth brought a nice meal home for the both of them. She owed him terribly, she realized, and thought that, just this once, she would open herself up to him in order to produce once again.

"Conleth?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you want a child?"

He nodded. "Yes. I have wanted that with you more than anything."

"I owe you, Conleth. So much, I owe you."

He stood up, a little puzzled by her proposal. "You don't have to, if that wasn't what you want."

"I can't make it up to you in any other way, Conleth. And... I'm sorry for everything."

He nuzzled her neck gently, trying to comfort her, and she stood up, readying herself for another production.

Neith-Maia found that he was gentler than the last time. She still tried to disassociate from the current moment; she remembered games she and her caring brother used to play, her mother's love, the gentle way Zander would care for her as a child, the hunting lessons she had, the first time she met Lancelot, and the unbelievable mirth that had consumed them both when he 'cracked her shell'. She tried to distract herself with happy memories and, soon enough, Conleth was finished.

Some time later, not nearly as long as the period of time Neith-Maia had held Lothair's egg, she had laid two eggs for Conleth. She kept quiet when she laid them; she hadn't even woken Conleth for it. She laid them in absolute silence, despite the minor pain involved in squeezing them out. They landed softly beside him and she hoped he wouldn't roll over on them.

Neith-Maia looked at Conleth and his unhatched children and decided she could no longer stay.

"Goodbye, Conleth," she whispered, low enough to not wake him, and left.

Neith-Maia walked for a whole evening and decided to keep walking for an entire day as well, not stopping to hunt anything. She had thought about what her late brother had said about predators paying their debts and decided that she didn't want any more to pay. By restricting herself, she was paying them off.

She thought about a long neck she had helped kill before she had even reached adolescence. Just then, she thought about what its name could have been, how many siblings it might have had, and how many deaths it could have witnessed. If she could barf up that meal and rid her blood of its nutrients, she would.

She thought about the eggs she had consumed shortly before Zander's death. If they had lived, would they have had names? Friends? Memories? She concluded that they would have. Neith-Maia thought that they would have had a loving mother to tell them stories about stars and her own childhood. If she could go back and scoop up the nourishing amniotic fluid back into the shell she was to repair, she would.

She thought about the triceratops she killed when she had first met Lancelot. Neith-Maia thought about the trembling fear she must have caused it, knowing that to enjoy it was bordering on psychopathy. Yet, an inexplicable, overwhelming romantic bond made its first form over the death of the fearful creature. If she could have formed that amazing bond with Lancelot without having to kill that poor thing, she would.

She thought about that Long Neck, Nosipho, whom she had encountered on multiple occasions. First, it was before the group split up and Neith-Maia made her first kill. Second, it was that time she had let out a cry of despair and only that herbivore realized that she wasn't a threat. Third, it was when Neith-Maia saw her fighting to protect someone against someone she had no chance against. Finally, it was when Neith-Maia had found her dead body and mourned over her, despite never knowing her and never being able to.

If she could have gone back and thanked her for the blessing of her existence, she would.

Now that they were all dead, it was too late. All she could do was pay her debt to each of them.

For as long as she could, she walked on, starving herself. The pain in her stomach became unbearable, but she would push herself until she could walk no further. While she did this, she would think of all she had wronged. What happens after one pays their debt? No one had explained to her, so she had no way of knowing. All she knew was that she was to find out very soon.

Finally, she no longer had the energy to walk.

Neith-Maia sat down for a while and when she was too drained, she let her body fall onto the ground. For a long time, all she could think about was the awful gnawing in her stomach that tormented her both physically and mentally. A few minutes would feel like hours and she would attempt to distract herself, to no avail. Finally, she had succeeded.

First, she felt herself inside an egg filled with warm fluid. Her legs and snout pushed against the softening shell and she had succeeded in getting out. She had playfully jumped on all of the broken shell pieces, declaring independence from the hard cocoon she had resided in. She saw the loving faces of her family, with the exception of Lothair, who had only expressed disinterest.

Then, she felt herself playing games and having late night chats with Zander. There were the story times with Mnemosyne, the hunting lessons with her brothers, and the shared mealtimes in which Neith-Maia wanted Zander to make a game out of everything. Then, when it was time to sleep, she would try to keep him up, but eventually he would get her to sleep, showing her brotherly affection. She saw her brothers debate on their moral stances, hoping not to get dragged in.

Then, she had only thought of survival, but knew she would feel safe around Zander. She remembered the death of her mother and the way her father inexplicably abandoned them to a psychopath. She and Zander had tried to escape Lothair and found a temporary paradise. She had enjoyed her last nights with him before Lothair tracked them down and killed him. His gruesome death was especially vivid now and she relived these aforementioned experiences without choice. Somehow, this lack of choice seemed to warn her of what was to come, but since she had never known of such occurrences, she had no idea of what that thing would be.

Neith-Maia relived the loneliness of her adolescence and the encounter with Asar, who, at the time, was mated with Tanith. She had demanded answers, the kind he couldn't give, and she revealed the monster of her father to his naive mate. She felt the broken egg shells of Tanith's children under her feet and watched as Duncan registered the horror of his half-sister's action. He angrily tried to take revenge and failed. She felt her mouth forms the words of cruelty uttered to the then innocent boy.

Then, a little too quickly, she relived her mating with Lancelot and the hatching of Chryseis. She felt the agony that came along with losing both to Duncan, who had kept his vow of vengeance. Joy came and joy went and she let out her cry of despair.

She relived the extension of her despair when she encountered Lothair again and hid her identity in hopes that he wouldn't kill her. Wanting a mate, he had committed the ultimate act of violation, ripping her of the chance to enjoy any sort of intimate touch again. Neith-Maia felt the pain in between her legs and felt the unwanted egg grow within her. She had resorted to starving herself until Tanith had found her and, mysteriously, showing her kindness.

The rest of her life was relived relatively quickly, her hazy vision speeding through the scenes of her mating with Conleth, her pacing around the Great Valley, the loss of the egg she had laid, the rescuing of baby Zander, and their short stay on that island far away from the valley. It was mostly days of Conleth expressing frustration at Zander, the only eventful thing being the day those Herbivore Children came onto the island. Their leaving played relatively quickly through her head.

Recent events played more slowly, but Neith-Maia no longer felt as active in reliving them, despite feeling every sensation. She mainly focused on giving Zander away, telling Garnet and Onyx about the Great Valley with its diverse species, and revealing the truth to Conleth. As much as she tried to disassociate herself from reliving her mating with Conleth, she couldn't. She felt everything, despite not even standing up and doing anything.

At last, her memory showed her laying her eggs and walking out to the desolate land for days, her stomach causing her more pain. At some point, she relived the sitting action she did not even an hour ago and, suddenly, relived the simple action of falling to the ground with a thud, giving up on her short existence.

When the reliving of her memory caught up to where she was now, she once became aware of her surroundings again. She blinked a few times, spending the last of her energy on it before she could no longer keep them open. Finally, they closed for good and Neith-Maia was in total darkness. If she could smile, she would.

There was no more pain.

The End


End file.
